ACEH TO ALLOW STONING

ISRAELS Arrow Missile Launch ARROW MISSLE LAUNCH - picture News from Jerusalem

BECK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6C6E6ayh4U&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEnV_-R-10&feature=player_embedded

Open Letter To Glenn Beck By Alex Jones Edited by Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Alex Jones has addressed Glenn Beck in the form of an open letter, appealing to him to be on the right side of history by using his growing public platform to tell the truth rather than exploiting it to deceive grass-roots conservatives and libertarians into following a re-birth of the neo-con agenda that Beck has embraced all along.

Glenn Beck,

It is important to preface this letter by highlighting the fact that I do not attack people lightly and have defended you in the past when Van Jones was calling for you to be fired. I fully support your right to free speech.It cannot be denied that you – Glenn Beck – are an extremely talented radio and television host and you have a magnetism and a proficiency of public speaking that draws people in and maintains their interest. However, being a novice history buff I am also painfully aware of the fact that Benedict Arnold was, like you, a talented individual – he was also a traitor.History is what matters and being on the right side of history is what’s important when it comes to the legacy we leave on this planet. You don’t want people to look back on you as a Benedict Arnold, as a traitor to America. You don’t want people to look back on you as a media whore, as playing the role of being loyal opposition to sucker legitimate and growing grass roots opposition to the new world order.Your agenda is to put out a dual message – to discredit and polarize the conservative movement to the benefit of the establishment left and the elite. Your bizarre and clownish antics of fake crying, which you proved were staged when you replicated them on demand for a GQ photo shoot, are doing nothing but reinforcing the stereotype that the conservative right is insane.Your entire 9/12 project has nothing to do with uniting America and everything to do with reinforcing neo-conservative rhetoric about how we should relinquish our rights and accept the police state because terrorists want to attack us and Saddam Hussein has WMD’s and yellowcake.

As the video below illustrates, despite the fact that you claim to be a Libertarian at heart,you have publicly supported programs and legislation that are universally abhorred by the vast majority of libertarians, such as the banker bailout and the USA Patriot Act.During your Monday September 22 2008 TV broadcast, you expressed your vehement support for the bailout, stating,The $700 billion dollars that you’re hearing about now is not only I believe necessary, it is also not nearly enough. However, as soon as Bush left office and Obama picked up the baton and continued the same financial policy, you changed your tune and routinely attacked the bailout as an example of how socialism was taking over America.The bailout was bad news for America under Bush just as it is under Obama, both were merely performing a transfer of wealth from America to offshore banks and giving the Federal Reserve total dictatorial control over the economy, but you only opposed it when Bush was out of office, proving that your opinions are not wedded to right or wrong, but to which puppet is in the White House.A host of mainline conservative talking heads opposed the banker bailout, as did the majority of the American people, but you went on television and publicly supported it. This is irreconcilable with you being a libertarian at heart as you claim.In addition, you aggressively attacked Ron Paul and his supporters during the election campaign when it looked like the Texan Congressman might have a real chance of winning the nomination. You implied that Ron Paul supporters were domestic terrorists and should be dealt with by the U.S. Army, but later tried to side with Ron Paul supporters when the infamous and discredited MIAC report echoed your own talking point that people who support Ron Paul were dangerous.

The smear came during a November 2007 show when you were still hosting on CNN. Yourself and ex-Marxist David Horowitz smeared Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left as terrorist sympathizers and inferred that the U.S. military should be used to silence them, parroting a talking point that traces back to a September 2006 White House directive. When asked about the issue, Ron Paul dismissed you as pretty discourteous and a demagogue.You Glenn Beck have acted as a cheerleader for the wars of aggression launched since 9/11 and in addition called for Iran to be attacked, claiming that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing a second holocaust.Once again, these political opinions stand completely contrary to libertarian principles, which follow the founding fathers’ view that an expansionist aggressive foreign policy is bad for America.You have attacked Obama for unraveling the Bush war machine to give you left cover, when in fact Obama has done everything in his power to expand Bush’s wars, beefing the campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan while removing a token amount of troops from Iraq and replacing them with an even greater number of contractors.By attacking Obama for being different to Bush, when in reality he offers not change whatsoever, you keep people locked in the left-right paradigm and ensure that instead of coming to the realization that the whole system is rigged, they will merely vote in another puppet for the new world order in 2012.Glenn Beck – you are controlled opposition, you are there to co-opt and ensure the Tea Parties are under control and that they never focus on taking on the real power behind the American economy – the Federal Reserve.

Bearing in mind that you almost died not too long ago, wouldn’t you rather come to the end of your life, whether that be in one year or 30 years from now, knowing that you stood up for true liberty and freedom? Isn’t that more valuable than your $50 million dollars a year contract? When I was approached ten years ago and offered large sums of money every year to sell out and become what you are today – the new Rush Limbaugh – while accepting tight controls on what I could and could not discuss – I said no and I thank God every day that I made the right decision.I appeal to you directly Glenn – think twice about what you are doing, think twice about what you are a part of right now. Try to do what you can to redeem yourself and don’t be a Benedict Arnold, don’t be a traitor that takes legions of good-natured but hoodwinked people down the rat hole with you as America collapses because those who had voices and platforms used them to deceive and distract rather than tell the truth.

SHEEN ON JONES TODAY SEPT 15,09
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090915_Tue_Alex.mp3 (SEPT 15)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKR2-A0KPU&feature=fvw
http://rss.nfowars.net/20090911_Fri_Alex.mp3 (SEPT 11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMVNMiYTQRw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-ZkwMuVAM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcsPBD0Eq-I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeVmw_fU6Gk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOABda-NjwE&feature=related
OREILY ATTACKS SHEEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YveAiJ1YYV4&feature=related
ALEX INTERVIEWS CHARLIE SHEEN AT HIS PLACE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuUgcAyIj4o&feature=PlayList&p=620CF30BA47B3AE6&index=11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6pl4wp77lA&feature=PlayList&p=620CF30BA47B3AE6&index=12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ3zrGs_dxw&feature=PlayList&p=620CF30BA47B3AE6&index=13

Sheen Blasts Cowardly Corporate Media Refusal to Debate 9/11 Facts
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Charlie Sheen has blasted the cowardly corporate media response to his 20 Minutes With The President letter, slamming the press as hopeless lap-dogs for failing to address a single one of his 20 bullet points on 9/11 while ignoring completely his challenge to publicly debate 9/11 truth debunkers.Sheen’s open letter to the President, which took the form of a fictionalized account of a meeting between the two in which Sheen grills Obama about the unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, received widespread media coverage and was featured in thousands of newspaper stories, online articles and TV segments. Awareness of the subject only increased after the subsequent release of a You Tube video in which Sheen personally appeals to the President to answer the questions.However, not one single mainstream media report adequately covered even one of Sheen’s 20 bullet points that were listed in the article and backed up by a substantial online bibliography.Indeed, scores of corporate media hit pieces completely fabricated the content of Sheen’s letter, attributing phrases to him that he had never made in an attempt to portray Sheen as abrasive and insulting to 9/11 victims and their families, despite the fact that the majority of family members share Sheen’s questions.

Fox News was one of many corporate media outlets to claim that Sheen had stated that Bush/Cheney planned it all,when in reality he had said no such thing. The media merely manufactured this spin so that they could politicize the issue, make it partisan, and then attack Sheen as just another deluded Hollywood liberal.Claims that Sheen directly accused President Bush of planning 9/11 were erroneously carried by hundreds of media outlets despite the fact that the actor never made any such statement. The fact that the press had to invent a strawman stance and put words in Sheen’s mouth to then attack him on proves how scared the media is of the power of the actual questions that Sheen asked in his letter.In a statement released to Prison Planet.com, Sheen chastised the media response as nothing more than a mendacious side-show performed by journalists he describes as hopeless lap dogs.

Sheen slams the press for following a desperate, juvenile and transparent script in response to his letter after they collectively attacked the man and ignored the facts.We can no longer allow these cowards and shills to contaminate the reservoirs of truth. In addition to their slanderous folly, they have ignored my very public challenge to a debate on Larry King Live. If these cockroaches had but one shred of courage, they would embrace this opportunity,states Sheen.Sheen also released to Prison Planet.com the e mails that he sent to the White House following the publication of his letter to Obama. After his request to meet with Obama was rejected by Obama’s staff, Sheen made another request to meet with Obama, this time accompanied by 9/11 family member Bob Mcllvaine who lost his son on September 11. Sheen has yet to hear back from Obama’s staff regarding his follow-up request.In a telling illustration that Obama has failed to even acknowledge Sheen’s 20 Minutes piece not just because he is busy,the President did manage to find time to comment on the mindless antics of rapper Kanye West on MTV, according to an ABC News reporter.It seems that Obama is more concerned about a hip-hop star’s behavior at a music awards show than he is with serious questions about 9/11 that are shared by the majority of 9/11 victims’ family members.

Charlie Sheen’s full statement and his e mails to the White House are reprinted below.Another Bin Laden tape has surfaced this morning. I will be monitoring the FBI’s most wanted web site to see if this tape finally provides the Bureau with the evidence required to list 9/11 in Bin Laden’s rap sheet. Thus far it has not.I must point out as well, that the mainstream media has once again followed a desperate, juvenile and transparent script in their response to my letter,Twenty Minutes with the President.Not a single member of this mendacious side-show has focused their attention, for one second, on the 20 bullet points chronicled in my letter. Instead, they have attacked the man and ignored the facts. If this is their definition of, responsible journalism, I urge all free thinking people to ignore these hopeless lap-dogs and responsibly do their own research. We can no longer allow these cowards and shills to contaminate the reservoirs of truth. In addition to their slanderous folly, they have ignored my very public challenge to a debate on Larry King Live. If these cockroaches had but one shred of courage, they would embrace this opportunity.

As of 1 o’clock PM, PST, on Sep. 14th, I still await a formal response from The White House. The emails I authored are printed below.I thank you all for your patriotic support.Respectfully – Charlie Sheen

Dear Mr. Gibbs – I understand you are quite busy so I won’t take up too much of your time. I have recently published a letter (article) online entitled,Twenty Minutes with the President. It is currently garnering worldwide attention. It is a fictional account of myself and President Obama in an interview setting, discussing the events of Sep.11th. If you haven’t read it yet, I would urge you to do so.My request is pretty straightforward: I would like to invite our Commander in Chief to join me in a real discussion/interview focusing specifically on Sep. 11th and it’s aftermath. If you would provide the President with a copy of my letter, he will have all of my questions and data ahead of time, therefore no surprises. I understand he is extremely busy and I can only imagine how many requests you receive each day.If nothing else, it might be a welcome break from the stress of health care reform and the issues surrounding the economy. Twenty minutes, 1200 seconds, the location of your choice. America deserves this Mr. Gibbs.I await your response. My very Best – Charlie Sheen

Dear Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Burton – I’m deeply saddened to hear that my request to interview President Obama regarding 9/11 and present him with the facts has been declined. However, I am now making another request.This request is on behalf of a large section of 9/11 victim’s family members, more specifically Mr. Bob Mcllvaine, who tragically lost his son Bobby on that awful day. Mr. Mcllvaine represents and echoes a growing number of outspoken victim’s family members who still have numerous unanswered questions regarding 9/11.Mr. Mcvllaine and I would like to sit down with the President and focus solely on the 20 bullet points outlined in my document. Again gentlemen, these facts are not my opinions or theories, these glaring inconsistencies are supported and confirmed by 6 of the 10 commission members responsible for shaping and creating the Official Report.If this secondary request cannot be enacted, I would ask, at the very least, for an explanation in writing from the President himself, detailing the reason(s) for his decision.Thank you for your time. My very best – Charlie Sheen

Ron Paul Has the Council on Foreign Relations Worried Written by Steven Yates Tuesday, 08 September 2009 12:30

Near the start of this year Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. As of this writing, H.R. 1207 has 282 cosponsors.A Senate equivalent, S.604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, has been introduced by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It has 23 cosponsors. Both bills have received a tremendous groundswell of grass-roots support. Much of the support is coming from ordinary people who have become aware of the fact that the Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars literally out of nothing during the past calendar year in its effort to micromanage its way out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.If such a measure were passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Obama, the resulting bill would allow the Government Accounting Office to conduct audits of Federal Reserve System monetary policy. The bill proposes to scrutinize the Fed’s dealings not just on domestic monetary policy but on dealings with foreign central banks and foreign governments.The power elite is worried. Evidence for this can be found in a short article The Fed's Political Problem appearing on the website of Foreign Affairs, flagship journal for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The article's author, Alan S. Blinder, is a senior-level economics professor at Princeton University who also directs Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies. From 1994 to 1996 he served as vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Blinder first argues a thesis he proposed back in 1997, that some areas of government are properly political and others are properly technocratic. He places monetary policy in the latter, where it can operate independently of political oversight. The drawback of Ron Paul’s bill is that it would transfer Fed oversight to the political realm and end its independence.Blinder describes Dr. Paul as an extreme libertarian and longtime foe of the Fed. He has, incredibly, persuaded almost two-thirds of the House of Representatives to co-sponsor a bill that would jeopardize the Fed’s independence.According to Blinder, the Fed gets plenty of critical evaluations of its policies and decisions. He maintains that Dr. Paul’s bill could easily develop into something quite dangerous.He imagines this scenario:

Sometime in 2010, the Fed, wanting to avoid inflation, will likely begin to abandon the hyper-expansionary monetary policy it adopted during the recent crisis as a way to stave off a depression. As it does so, interest rates will start rising even as unemployment remains high. Predictably, Congress, being more closely attuned to public opinion, will be unhappy with this situation. Until now, the Fed’s independence has ensured that it can afford to ignore public opinion and take such necessary but unpopular economic measures. That is precisely why we want an independent monetary policy. But if the Paul bill passes, angry members of Congress could ask for a GAO audit. And, if the report is critical, they could use it to browbeat members of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s interest-rate-setting body, for killing the country’s economic recovery.This misses the key argument Ron Paul has been making, which follows those of members of the Austrian school of economics (e.g., Ludwig von Mises). What Blinder euphemistically calls hyper-expansionary monetary policy actually is inflationary, if we understand inflation to be not merely rising prices but an increase in the amount of fiat currency in circulation. Mainstream economics has long preferred the public to see inflation almost exclusively in terms of visibly rising prices. If prices aren't rising, economists can maintain that inflation is low even though the money creation spigot is going full blast — as it has been since the economic crisis began a year ago.If we understand inflation as an increase in the money supply, however, we see immediately that the Fed, far from being a controller of inflation, is actually an engine of inflation. Rising prices in this case are just one possible effect of monetary inflation. The Fed is responsible for the long-term decline in purchasing power of our dollars, which have been backed literally by nothing except legal tender laws and the willingness of the public to accept them since 1971, the year President Richard Nixon severed the last ties between the dollar and gold. Fed monetary policy is the reason a hamburger costs you several dollars when your grandfather could buy one for thirty-five cents. The dollar has lost slightly over 96 percent of its value since the Federal Reserve System was created in 1913. The national debt has soared during the period since 1971 from a few hundred million to its present $11.8 trillion. Millions will be added to the debt during the brief time it takes to read this article! The dollar’s value will drop considerably more should it lose its status as the world’s reserve currency. The Chinese are getting very nervous about the money-creation spigot in Washington, D.C. Perhaps these are the kinds of developments that elites such as Blinder don’t want the public to know about. Clearly the elites are uncomfortable with the amount of attention the Fed has received — the public being aware of the trillions having been created literally out of thin air during the past year.What will this do to the long-term purchasing power of my money? is a perfectly valid question many ordinary Americans are asking.

What are the prospects for H.R. 1207 and S. 604? Even if these bills pass and a compromise bill reaches President Barack Obama’s desk, it is difficult to imagine him even considering signing it. The effort to bring more of the Fed’s activities into the light of day may receive a new ally in the Senate late next year, however, as Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul has announced his candidacy for one of Kentucky’s two slots and raised $815,000 as of this writing. Like father, like son: Rand Paul is also highly critical of the lack of transparency that characterizes crucial decisions made by the Federal Reserve and has vowed, if elected to the Senate, to work to shed light on this secretive organization.He reminds us of the trillions the Fed has created out of thin air and adds,The American people have a right to know to whom this money was given. For all its talk of transparency the current administration has done nothing to tear the shroud off the Fed.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Early flu season — what you need to know By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer – Mon Sep 14, 1:36 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Flu season's in full swing two months early this year — and nearly all the cases are the new swine flu strain that so far is targeting mostly children and younger adults.That doesn't mean older people are off the hook. They sometimes catch swine flu. Also, we could see a one-two punch when regular flu strains start circulating as the weather gets colder. You probably won't know which kind you have. Very few people will get the specialized testing to tell. That doesn't matter — treatment's the same for both.Here are answers to some questions about what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts will be a busy and long flu season.

Q: Where's the vaccine, and how many shots will I need?

A: Many people will need to line up twice. One vaccine protects against regular winter flu, and that vaccine's available now. A separate vaccine to protect against swine flu — the 2009 H1N1 strain — will arrive in October. It appears that adults will need one dose of that vaccine; dose studies are under way in children to see if they'll need a booster.

Q: Why couldn't both kinds be put into one shot?

A: Bad timing. Swine flu didn't burst onto the scene until April, after manufacturers had already begun brewing this fall's regular flu vaccine and too late to add into that mix.

Q: How does swine flu compare to regular flu strains?

A: So far it doesn't seem any more deadly than regular flu, which kills 36,000 Americans a year and hospitalizes 200,000. But swine flu does sicken the young much more frequently than the old, and it spreads very easily, especially in crowded schools. A University of Washington study found the typical sick school student infects two to three classmates — so keep sick kids at home.The sad reality: You can be contagious up to 24 hours before you show symptoms, one reason flu spreads so easily.

Q: Who's at highest risk of severe illness or even death?

A: Children under 5. Pregnant women. People 65 or older. And people of any age with asthma or other lung disorders; diabetes; heart, kidney, liver or blood disorders; neurodevelopmental disorders such as cerebral palsy; or a weakened immune system.

Q: I think I had swine flu over the summer. Do I still need the vaccine?

A: Yes, says CDC flu specialist Dr. Anne Schuchat. Other viruses mimic flu so it's hard to be sure what you had.

Q: How does swine flu affect children, and what symptoms should prompt a race to the pediatrician?

A: Symptoms are the same regardless of age: Fever, aches, cough, sore throat, sneezing or runny nose, sometimes diarrhea and vomiting.

The CDC says to seek immediate care if a child has difficulty breathing or is breathing fast, turns bluish, isn't drinking enough fluids, has severe vomiting, is hard to wake up or lethargic, or is so irritable the child doesn't want to be held.

Also seek care if the fever breaks and then later returns, sign of a possible bacterial infection.

Q: What are emergency signs for an adult?

A: Difficulty breathing, pain or pressure in the chest of abdomen, dizziness, confusion, severe vomiting or a rebound fever.

Q: Won't I or my child need those anti-flu medicines, Tamiflu or Relenza?

A: No, most won't, stresses CDC's Schuchat. Most people will recover with rest and fluids — don't get dehydrated.

But people at high risk should make a plan with their doctor now, before they're sick, Schuchat advises. They may need Tamiflu within the first 48 hours of symptoms, and some doctors may agree to an advance prescription if they promise to call with symptoms — saving time and exposing others in the waiting room.

Q: How long should sick kids stay out of school or day care?

A: For 24 hours after the fever breaks naturally, not because of fever-reducing medicine. And never give a child aspirin, only non-aspirin fever reducers. For a child under 5, ask a doctor first about type and dose.You're considered more contagious while feverish. But children especially can be contagious for over a week, so doctors say use common sense — stay home if you're still sick after the fever breaks.

Q: Is it true that not everyone gets a fever?

A: Yes. There are no good estimates although the CDC thinks it's not too common.

Q: Someone's sick in my office. How long until I know if I caught it?

A: Up to a week.

Q: Do I have an obligation to notify my friends or employer if I or my child get sick?

A: Of course you tell your friends,especially if you've been around someone who's at high risk, says Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. Treat flu like any other easy-to-spread illness. Families normally tell the school and playmates when a child gets strep throat, for example. Employers must weigh privacy requirements but certainly can advise that flu has hit the office.

Q: Can you catch flu from the flu shot? You hear people say,I was sick the day after the shot!

A: No, it's biologically impossible for a flu shot to give you influenza; it's made with a dead virus. But the flu shot won't prevent a cold or other flu-like viruses, causing some confusion.

Q: But what if I hate shots?

A: There's FluMist, the squirt-in-your nose vaccine, available for people ages 2 to 49.

Q: What if I have asthma?

A: Any flu can worsen asthma attacks, warns CDC asthma specialist Dr. David Callahan. Children may be prescribed Tamiflu at the first symptoms, so call your doctor. Keep a good supply of regular asthma medicines, including rescue inhalers for asthma attacks, on hand.

Q: What if I have diabetes?

A: Flu can increase a diabetic's blood sugar, so test frequently and call your doctor about adjusting insulin or other medications, said CDC diabetes specialist Dr. Ann Albright. Keep a two-week supply of regular medication. Stay hydrated. And check your ketone levels.

Q: My child was told to bring hand sanitizer to school and use it regularly. Is there any concern with that?

A: Nope, says the CDC. It shouldn't be more drying to skin than soap. Just keep the whole bottle away from toddlers who might try to swallow it.

Q: Why isn't everybody tested?

A: Rapid tests just tell if you have flu, not which strain, and aren't always accurate. More sophisticated testing takes too long to be practical. The CDC does enough testing to tell what strains are circulating where but for the average person it doesn't matter — flu's flu.EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. Flu information: http://www.flu.gov

Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer - Mon Sep 14, 6:30 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – When the coughing stops is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious, experts said after seeing new research that suggests the virus can still spread many days after a fever goes away.The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer — especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.This study shows you're not contagious for a day or two. You're probably contagious for about a week, said Gaston De Serres, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in Quebec.He presented one of the studies Monday at an American Society for Microbiology conference. It is the first big meeting of infectious disease experts since last spring's emergence of swine flu, which now accounts for nearly all of the flu cases in the United States. More than 1 million Americans have been infected and nearly 600have died from it, the CDC estimates.It is unclear whether the new research will lead the CDC to rethink its advice on how long people with swine flu should hole up. Long breaks from school and work do not seem worth it for a virus that now seems to cause mostly mild illness, said the CDC's flu chief, Nancy Cox. Swine flu is spreading so widely now that confining the sick does less good, she said.We tried to have our guidance balance out all of these factors,she said.It's just virtually impossible not to have virus introduced into settings such as schools and universities.

Doctors know that people can spread ordinary seasonal flu for a couple of days before and after symptoms start by studying virus that patients shed in mucus. The first such studies of swine flu are just coming out now, and they imply a longer contagious period for the novel bug.It's probably realistic that this virus sheds much longer than seasonal flu, said Dr. Jonathan McCullers, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.Three reports suggest this is so. De Serres and other researchers in Canada took nose and throat swabs from 43 patients with lab-confirmed flu and dozens of other sick family members.On the eighth day after symptoms first appeared, 19 to 75 percent showed signs of virus remaining in their noses, depending on the type of test used.This proportion appears to be very big, and it is,but it's not clear how much virus is needed to actually spread flu, so the lower number is more reliable, he said.Dr. David C. Lye reported on 70 patients treated at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. Using a very sensitive test to detect virus in the nose or throat, he found that 80 percent had it five days after symptoms began, and 40 percent seven days after. Some still harbored virus as long as 16 days later. How soon they started on antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu made a difference in how much virus was found, but not whether virus was present at all.A third report came from Dr. Guillermo Ruiz-Palacios of the National Institutes of Medical Science and Nutrition in Mexico, where the first cases of swine flu were detected.

Infected people shed the virus for a very, very long time,often for more than a week after the start of symptoms, he told the conference. This was especially true of obese people, and patients who started on medicines longer than two days after symptoms first appeared.The new reports suggest a longer contagious period for swine flu, but how long is not clear, Cox said. Even with it in your nose,you might not be shedding enough virus to infect other people,she said.That is why signs like coughing may matter more, De Serres said.Contagiousness varies, not only with the presence of the virus, but the other symptoms that would make you transmit,he said.

Swine flu symptoms can include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, and sometimes diarrhea and vomiting. Young children may be cranky, less playful or not eat as much as normal, the CDC advises.
The agency's advice to stay home for a day after fever breaks does not apply to health care settings. There, confinement for seven days from the start of symptoms — or until they go away, whichever is longer — is still advised. People who have had swine flu should cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze and wash their hands a lot once they do return to work and school, the CDC says. On the Net: Swine flu info: http://www.flu.gov CDC advice: http://www.cdc.gov/h1flu/guidance/exclusion.htm and http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm Medical conference: http://www.icaac.org

BIN LADEN TAPE SUSPICIOUS
http://www.infowars.com/cia-linked-intel-center-releases-highly-suspicious-bin-laden-tape/

Internet Security Software Company Says 9/11 Searches Infected with Malware
Kurt Nimmo Infowars September 14, 2009

Prior to the eighth anniversary of 9/11, researchers at Trend Micro, an anti-virus software company, warned on their blog that Google searches of the term September 11 lead to rogue AV malware.Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner’s knowing it. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware, misleading adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software.It should come as no surprise that the Pentagon would aggressively attack the information highway in their attempt to achieve dominance in information warfare.Trend Micro’s suggestion? People should rely on reputable news agencies for their information on 9/11 — you know, the same corporate media sources that spread the official fairy tale generated by the government and its hand-picked whitewash commission of insiders. After its release, the commission report was questioned by highly respected university professors, over 50 senior government officials, medical professionals, victim family members, over 200 pilots and aviation professionals, hundreds of architects and engineers, military officers, senior Republican appointees, federal engineers and scientists, and even members of the commission itself.As with most malware, the perpetrators behind the TROJ_FAKEAV.BOH virus are unknown. The obvious question is who stands to gain from this exploit? If the creators of this particular malware wanted to spread their virus far and wide, they would likely use a more popular search term — for instance the name of a celebrity or popular television show.

Excuse my paranoia, but the obvious culprit here is the government, not a band of rogue hackers and virus programmers. The government — in league with the Mockingbird corporate media — have turned somersaults in a tireless effort to debunk and discredit the 9/11 truth movement and derail any attempt to initiated a new and independent investigation.The people behind FAKEAV still show no sign of slowing down,writes Jessa De La Torre, threat response engineer for Trend Micro — and they won’t until they scare everybody away from investigating 9/11.Rumsfeld’s Pentagon unleashed a shadow war of covert special-forces computer and internet operations soon after 9/11.But unlike rebellious teenagers sitting at their bedroom computers, these hackers work for intelligence agencies and have advanced training in computer science, math and cryptology,the Montreal Gazette reported in October, 2001. More recently, General Dynamics Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., CACI International Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp., and Raytheon Co. competed for cyber warfare contracts as the Obama administration prepares to spend billions to obtain cyber warfare capabilities to outperform the Chinese and Russians,according to Washington Technology.Free exchange of information, according to the Pentagon, is a threat.The Pentagon’s Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an internet, with the potential for free speech, is in direct opposition to their goals. The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy weapons system, writes Brent Jessop. It should come as no surprise that the Pentagon would aggressively attack the information highway in their attempt to achieve dominance in information warfare. Donald Rumsfeld’s involvement in the Project for a New American Century sheds more light on the need and desire to control information.” The PNAC document, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, states: It is now commonly understood that information and other new technologies… are creating a dynamic that may threaten America’s ability to exercise its dominant military power.

Last year, according to Wired, the U.S. Special Operations Command suggested clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers to fight against the enemy. The 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University,Blogs and Military Information Strategy,suggested co-opting bloggers, or even putting them on the payroll.Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering,James Kinniburgh and Dororthy Denning wrote.The effort was a follow-up to a Pentagon program that worked with a carefully culled list of military analysts, bloggers, and others who can be counted on to parrot the Bush Administration’s line on national security issues,Ken Silverstein wrote for Harpers.Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security actively recruited hackers who think like the bad guy,National Terror Alert reported.

Considering the above, it is not a stretch to conclude that the Pentagon would infect 9/11 searches with malware. Once again, cui bono – the principle that probable responsibility for an act or event lies with one having something to gain — comes into play.

Aircraft in Gulf to be tracked using satellites.By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 14, 5:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Air traffic controllers will begin using satellite technology in December to track aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico, a significant milestone in the government's program to replace the nation's radar-based air traffic system, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday.The most immediate beneficiaries will be airliners flying from the southern United States to South America, which will be able to take off more frequently and fly closer together, and helicopters servicing about 9,000 oil rigs in the Gulf, which should be able to fly more direct routes and be less limited by poor weather.The new technology will be used in a 240,000-square mile area of the Gulf. Radar coverage extends only about 150 miles from shore, so aircraft flying over the Gulf — or any large body of water — aren't covered. As a safety precaution, controllers are required to keep 100 square miles around each plane free of other aircraft. To do this, they stagger planes leaving the continental U.S. by ten minutes, an inefficient system that dates back to World War II.Likewise, helicopters, which service Gulf oil platforms with an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 daily takeoffs and landings, must be able to see other aircraft. That limits their ability fly in poor weather.The satellite-based surveillance will give controllers the ability to see aircraft over water just as they do over land using radar.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to deploy the system nationwide by 2013, although aircraft won't have to install the cockpit equipment needed to take advantage of the new system until 2020. Ultimately, the system — known as NextGen — is expected to save the airline industry billions of dollars every year in time and fuel, as well as cut pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.The system is one of the biggest steps in technology our generation is going to see,said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who joined LaHood at a news conference.Airlines, who have been especially hard hit by the economic downturn, are seeking help paying for the estimated billions of dollars it will cost to install new equipment.Congress and FAA should make this program a priority by creating the necessary financial incentives for accelerated deployment,said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines.LaHood said the administration is working with the industry to find a solution.

Netanyahu: No complete West Bank building freeze By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 14, 2:36 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected U.S. calls to freeze all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, angering Palestinians and putting a New York summit in question.Netanyahu's announcement came on the eve of a crucial meeting with President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, who is trying to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian summit on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session next week.In a statement late Monday, Netanyahu's office said no meeting to restart peace talks has been set but that he would move up his departure to New York, set for a week from Wednesday, if that were necessary to enable one to take place.A tough line from both Israel and the Palestinians, combined with a Saudi refusal to make new conciliatory gestures to the Jewish state, could further complicate U.S. efforts to forge a comprehensive regional peace.

Seeking to jump-start peace efforts, Mitchell has been pressing Israel to halt its construction of homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, and say the settlements make it increasingly difficult for them to realize their goal of establishing an independent state.Netanyahu told parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defense committee on Monday that Israel would consider suspending new plans to build in the West Bank for a limited time only, according to a meeting participant.Netanyahu said Israel will continue to build some 3,000 apartments already begun, trying to strike a balance between Israel's desire to resume talks with the Palestinians while also enabling normal life to continue in the settlements.He also said Israel would continue to build without restrictions in east Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.Netanyahu has repeatedly voiced these positions, but delivering the message a day ahead of an important meeting with Mitchell gave them an added note of defiance.Netanyahu hopes his offer of a settlement slowdown will be enough for the Americans. He has argued that an absolute freeze would spark an uprising in his hardline coalition, which includes settler advocates, making it impossible to conduct peace talks with the Palestinians.Whether these arguments will sway Mitchell remained unclear. Mitchell is trying to bridge the differences on this visit to set the stage for a summit next week between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, possibly with Obama joining. All will be in New York for the U.N. General Assembly.Abbas has left the door open to a meeting next week, but insists he will not reopen peace talks until Israel halts all settlement construction. The latest round of peace talks broke down before Netanyahu took office in March,

Sabri Seidam, an Abbas aide, said the Palestinian position remains unchanged.

Israel has to stop stalling and focus on creating the atmosphere for a resumption of the peace process. Its sole track should lead to the establishment of the Palestinian state,Seidam told The Associated Press.Mitchell had been set to meet Netanyahu on Monday. But their talks were delayed for a day so both could attend the funeral of an Israeli air force pilot killed in a training accident. The pilot, Capt. Asaf Ramon, was the son of Israel's first and only astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.Mitchell is also set to meet Abbas on Tuesday. If he can achieve a compromise, a summit next week would mark the first face-to-face encounter between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders since Netanyahu took office. The U.S. has also tried to link renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks to work toward a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the entire Arab world. Israeli officials have said the extent of any settlement freeze would depend on whether the Arab world reciprocates with some sort of conciliatory gesture.Saudi Arabia has rebuffed the effort and indicated it has no intention of making the first move.Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., wrote in a strongly worded opinion piece in the New York Times on Saturday that diplomatic normalization with Israel before it returns occupied Arab land would undermine international law and turn a blind eye to immorality.Associated Press correspondent Dalia Nammari contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.

Jewish Nakba Marks 16 Years since Oslo Accords
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu SEPT 15,09

(IsraelNN.com)
The Oslo Accords, signed by former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in Washington 16 years ago this week, are the Jewish Nakba, the Arabic term for catastrophe,according to Prof. Ron Breiman, former chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel.Arabs used the term Nakba to refer to the United Nations decision in November 1947 that a Jewish State should be created and to the formal declaration of statehood six months later.Writing in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz, Prof. Breiman asserted,There were the good days of hope that began in Oslo, and the bad days when those hopes were dashed and the gloomy forecasts came true.The Oslo agreements and subsequent talks exploded with suicide bombings and hundreds of other terrorist attacks on Israelis.The violence escalated with massive rocket and mortar attacks after the launching of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, when Gaza was in the firm control of the Fatah faction.The people who were seduced into believing in the Oslo dream are unable or unwilling to acknowledge the feelings of the others, Breiman wrote.The day that the peace-dreamers danced around the golden calf of Peace Now was the day of awakening for the others, who realized the Oslo war's danger must be blocked. They see the extreme left's identification with Arab nationalism and contempt for Jewish symbols as a threat as dangerous as those of the enemy.Despite Prof. Breiman's charges that the Israeli media agenda helped foster what he called the fallacious title the peace process,Yediot Aharonot editorial writer Eitan Haber wrote this week that even nationalists should pine for the days of Oslo.

Haber, who was a senior advisor to Rabin, argued that the Oslo Accords did not mention the term Palestinian state, and he did not cite the agreements as serving as a stepping stone towards a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders. However, Prof. Breiman told Israel National News Tuesday that academics who advised Rabin knew that the objective was to create a new Arab state, even if the objective was not explicitly stated.Rabin fell into a trap,Prof. Breiman explained,and that eventually cost him his life.Haber also attacked the lie that Israel provided the Palestinian Authority with the same IDF rifles that were eventually used to kill and maim hundreds of Israelis.However, the Oslo agreements state, and the Israeli government later approved - if not provided - thousands of rifles for the PA, which was then under the aegis of Yasser Arafat. Breiman said, If I am hit by a rifle bullet, it does not matter to me if it is from a blue and white [Israeli-made] weapon or from somewhere else. Israel provided the rifles, no matter where they came from.Haber also credited the Oslo Accords for Israel’s unprecedented economic growth and the establishment of diplomatic missions in Israel by several Arab countries. The harsh and dirty war against the agreement was accompanied by a campaign of lies and disinformation that to this day is entrenched in the minds of many Israelis, including leftists,he argued.Prof. Breiman noted in his article, published earlier this week, A normal state does not abandon its citizens' security to a group it defines as a terrorist organization. Neither does it put the state-controlled electronic media at the disposal of terrorists so they can speak to its citizens over the heads of its government. It does not allow senior terrorists ('VIPs') to drive around its territory escorted by junior terrorist bodyguards. And it does not impose freezes or evictions on its citizens to please the enemy.

Netanyahu: Lebanon accountable for rocket strike on Israel
Sunday, 13 September 2009 12:43 News from Jerusalem.

Israel holds the Lebanese government accountable for Friday's rocket attacks on northern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.Two rockets launched from Lebanon hit open areas in the Western Galilee on Friday. An Israel Defense Forces artillery unit shot back at the launch area, firing some 12 artillery shells. No casualties or damage were reported on either side.It is clear that this firing was from south of the Litani River, in complete contravention of UN Resolution 1701,Netanyahu said.In the end, it is the Lebanese government that is responsible for upholding the cease-fire and we view it as responsible for any violations and aggression directed at us from Lebanese territory.

Netanyahu added that Israel views the rocket fire with utmost gravity.I have said that we will not hold back in the face of firing at Israeli territory,the premier said,and we will not countenance any missiles or other kind of terrorism directed at Israeli citizens.

Lebanon could seek Iranian assistance

Lebanon may turn to Iran for weapons in the event of another Israeli strike, prominent Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Saturday.Jumblatt, speaking to Fars TV, said that Lebanon was in need for anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, which he claimed could be obtained from Russia as well as Iran.The Druze leader also called to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran to improve ties in order to close ranks ahead of a future Israeli assault.

Report: UNIFIL warned of Katyusha attack

Earlier Sunday, Channel 10, quoting the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, reported that the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon in southern Lebanon was warned of a possible attack 10 days before the two Katyusha rockets hit Israel.

The report added that UNIFIL informed the Lebanese army two days before the attack.

UNIFIL spokesman Milos Strugar on Saturday blamed radicals from Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon for firing the two rockets into Israel on Friday. The IDF retaliated with artillery fired toward the presumed area of the launches, near the village of Qlaileh. Strugar said this appeared to be the work of an extremist group trying to disrupt stability in southern Lebanon, and possibly harm the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.Strugar would not comment further on the issue, but Lebanese sources said it is widely believed the rockets were fired by a radical Islamist group connected to similar groups abroad. They noted that the rockets were fired on September 11, the dates of the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center in 2001.A Lebanese Web site reported that four men in civilian clothes arrived in the area in a van, installed three rockets with stopwatches and left.

Lebanese commentators said over the weekend that the rocket fire was connected to the country's political crisis - which recently deepened when Saad Hariri, the winner of Lebanon's most recent elections, announced last week that he was not able to form a government. However, other parties recommended to President Michel Suleiman that he return the mandate to Hariri once again.The sources said Hariri's statement was meant to pressure Hezbollah and its Christian ally, Michel Aoun, to confirm the list of ministers Hariri had presented to the president. Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian March 14 alliance, had accepted the core demands of the pro-Syrian opposition led by Hezbollah - which demanded that the government would include 10 opposition ministers with veto power. Five additional ministers will be appointed by the president. However, a major point of contention remains as Hariri demands to choose the opposition ministers himself, without consulting opposition leaders.haaretz

Mafia sank boat with radioactive waste: official Mon Sep 14, 5:28 pm ET

ROME (AFP) – Italian authorities have discovered a ship that was sunk by the mafia off the coast of southern Italy with 120 barrels of radioactive waste on board, a local prosecutor said Monday.The 110-metre (360-feet) long ship was found on Saturday 500 metres (1,640 feet) under water and around 28 kilometres (17 miles) from the coast of Calabria, Paola city prosecutor Bruno Giordano told AFP.For the moment, we do not know the origin of the waste, but it is probably from abroad. It is a first lead,he said.The Cunsky is one of 32 vessels carrying toxic material that has been sunk by the mafia in the Mediterranean, according to the prosecutor's office in Reggio Calabria.The location of the Cunsky was revealed by a Calabrese mafia turncoat, Francesco Fonti, who confessed to being behind the explosion that brought the ship down, officials said.Sebastiano Venneri, vice president of the environmental group Legambiente, said former members of the Ndrangheta mafia have said that the crime syndicate was paid to sink ships with radioactive material for the last 20 years.An investigation on the origin of this waste is therefore necessary as soon as possible,Venneri told AFP.

Security and Defense: Israel goes ballistic Sunday, 13 September 2009 12:26 News from Jerusalem .Arrow Missile Launch

On Sunday, the USS Higgins hauled up its anchor and sailed out of Haifa Port where it had docked for a short visit.An Arleigh Burke class destroyer - one of the largest and most powerful naval vessels built in the United States - the Higgins is one of 18 American ships with an Aegis interceptor system, capable of destroying enemy ballistic missiles above the atmosphere.In just a few weeks, additional Aegis vessels will arrive here to participate in the biennial Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise that the IDF has been holding with the US European Command (EUCOM) and Missile Defense Agency since 2001.This year's drill, scheduled for mid-October, is being described as the largest joint exercise ever held by the countries. During it they will jointly test four ballistic missile defense systems.In addition to the Aegis, the MDA and EUCOM are sending THAAD and Patriot 3 missile defense systems - America's most-advanced - for the first time.While the Higgins has not yet needed to use its Aegis system to intercept missiles fired into Israel, its crew is intimately familiar with the country's various security issues, particularly along the northern border.

The ship is named for US Marine Col. William R. Higgins, who was kidnapped by Hizbullah in southern Lebanon in 1988, while serving as a commander of a UN peacekeeping mission. In August 1989, a cell linked to Hizbullah murdered him in response to the IDF kidnapping of Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid, a senior cleric and leader of the guerrilla group who was involved in the kidnapping. His body was dumped, over a year later, on a Beirut side street.Israel had planned to use Obeid to obtain information regarding the fate of IAF navigator Ron Arad. Obeid was released in 2004 in exchange for the bodies of three soldiers - kidnapped in October 2000 - as well as shady businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, in a large prisoner swap with Hizbullah.The cooperation between Israel and the US on missile defense dates back to the mid-1980s when they began to jointly develop the Arrow missile defense system. Since then, the US government has spent close to $3 billion on the Arrow, which is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing. Earlier this year, Congress approved additional funding for the development of the Arrow 3, a larger version with greater range and the capability of intercepting missiles at higher altitudes.The cooperation peaked ahead of the 1991 Gulf War when the first Bush administration sent Patriot missile batteries to help defend the country against Saddam Hussein's Scud missile attacks.Last October, the Bush administration gave Israel a farewell gift in the form of the X-Band radar, which is deployed in the Negev and is capable of detecting targets thousands of miles away, providing five to seven minutes of warning before an Iranian missile strikes. This is in contrast to the 10 seconds the residents of Sderot have when a Kassam rocket is launched from the Gaza Strip.Juniper Cobra, senior defense officials said this week, is aimed at creating infrastructure in case Israel is attacked and the US decides to send the Aegis or THAAD to bolster the Arrow. The exercise spans several days and involves hundreds of Israeli and American soldiers, mostly from the air force.

The primary focus of the Juniper Cobra exercise held in 2007, for example, was integrating the lower-altitude US Patriot missile systems with the higher-altitude Arrow-2. This year, the integration will focus on improving the interoperability between the Arrow, THAAD and Aegis.Officials said that the exercise may include live fire by the systems - most likely the Patriot - but the teams will mainly conduct computerized simulations of various threat scenarios launched from fictitious countries. The threats are then tracked and engaged by the various systems and the teams jointly write doctrine and staff procedures.For Israel, the exercise could not have come at a more important time. Since the beginning of the year, Iran has made some impressive leaps with its ballistic missile development, culminating with the February launch of its first homemade satellite - called Omid - as well as the successful launch in May of a new missile, the Sajil, that has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, easily reaching most of Eastern Europe.This is impressive considering that just 10 years ago, the Iranians only had Scud B and C missiles. Today, they have their own production line of Shihabs and Sajils, for which they are building underground silos. In addition, Israeli assessments are that the Iranians will soon be capable of independently manufacturing their own version of the BM25 missile which they received from North Korea and has a range of more than 3,000 km.

According to the assessments, the launch of the Omid demonstrates that Iranian scientists have also made breakthroughs in guidance technology which has also likely been applied to its ballistic missiles.According to Uzi Rubin, founder of the Arrow missile and a former head of the Homa Missile Defense Agency, Iran can also take unguided rockets like the Zelzal - which are also in Hizbullah's hands - and turn them into guided rockets with ranges topping 220 km.This is an original Iranian project; we don't see it anywhere else,Rubin noted in a recent briefing at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.The second major breakthrough is in the propulsion systems, which Iran has succeeded in upgrading from liquid to solid fuel. The main difference is that a missile that operates on liquid fuel needs to be fueled very close to launch, making it easier to discover with surveillance satellites or hovering aircraft. Solid-fuel missiles have a significantly longer shelf life and can be stored in underground silos for a long time, allowing the Iranians to just lift their cover and launch.

It is not an easy task though to assess Iran's progress in missile development.

On May 19, the EastWest Institute, a New York-based think tank that monitors global security, issued a report claiming that there was no reliable information on Iran's success in developing a solid fuel rocket. The next day, on May 20, Iran test fired the Sajil, proving without a doubt that it had independently mastered the capability.
These developments indicate as possible reversal in roles between Iran and North Korea. If Teheran bought technology from Pyongyang two decades ago, today the flow of technology is believed to have reversed.jpost.

Medvedev: countries must accept criticism By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 14, 12:04 pm ET

YAROSLAVL, Russia – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that all countries must be willing to accept the criticism of others, a policy that would be a distinct break from the prickly defensiveness of his predecessor Vladimir Putin.Medvedev, prone to generalities and implications rather than outright statements, did not mention any countries by name in his speech to an international security conference.

But his remarks were closely scrutinized by observers trying to determine if he is setting a different course than Putin pursued in his eight years in power.The issue of how much they may differ gained attention last week after Putin made his strongest indication yet that he could run for president again in 2012.Putin, now prime minister, last Friday told a delegation of Western scholars and journalists that he and Medvedev wouldn't compete against each other, but "sit down and decide" who will run.Medvedev has appeared to try to emerge from the shadow of his predecessor and mentor, but Putin is widely seen as calling the shots in Russia.

Medvedev's statement Monday contrasted with the line of Putin, who has angrily brushed off any Western criticism of Russian democracy as interference in Russian affairs.Countries are entitled to critically assess not only foreign, but also domestic policies of one another,Medvedev said.They may point to flaws of such policy if it may lead to international problems, or ignores generally-accepted ethical and humanitarian norms.Rights of nations mustn't be used to create isolated, non-transparent and closed political regimes,Medvedev said.He added, however, that rules and criteria of such assessment must not be enforced upon.Putin, Medvedev's predecessor and mentor, worked to centralize Russia's political system, strengthen state control over media and stifle dissent during his presidency.Medvedev also sought to revive his proposal of a new European security pact which has received lukewarm reception in the West.Medvedev, speaking at an international conference in Yaroslavl, insisted that the new document was necessary to improve rapport between the continent's nations.I hope to continue discussing one of our initiatives — the European security treaty,Medvedev said in a speech to the conference.We will continue to push for this proposal and explain our position.Medvedev first made the proposal shortly after his March 2008 election, arguing that the new document was necessary to improve mutual trust and security in Europe.The previous U.S. administration stonewalled Medvedev's idea, but President Barack Obama has acknowledged it as part of his efforts to reset relations with Moscow.

Stop Ahmadinejad Movement Hits New York
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu SEPT 15,09

(IsraelNN.com)
The World Jewish Congress and other activists are planning a mass demonstration in New York, calling for a worldwide boycott of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scheduled speech at the United Nations in two weeks. Protests in Iran last June succeeded in preventing him from visiting Iran’s main holy city, and fears of violence prevented the Iranian leader from visiting Libya, Egypt and Latin America.

The World Jewish Congress has already launched its campaign, featuring a petition form on its website, and warns that while Iran still defies several rounds of sanctions imposed by the UN, [it] may soon be capable of building an atomic bomb and supports radical terrorist groups. Human rights and freedom of expression are being suppressed in Iran. Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map.The Iranian community is sponsoring another petition on a website.
Although the United Nations rules require that Ahmadinejad be admitted into the assembly hall, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said, We believe that, in view of his past performances, he has relinquished the moral right to speak from that pulpit.He added,Member states have an obligation to show that the U.N. cannot be hijacked for the purposes of spreading the kind of racist diatribe and bigoted views which the organization was founded to combat and overcome. We are calling on world leaders to show that the values and goals of the UN Charter will be upheld at this year’s General Assembly meeting.Yeshiva University and several other Jewish organizations are co-sponsoring the rally at noon next Thursday, across the street from U.N. headquarters.Dr. Malcolm Hoenlein, president of the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, the central coordinating body for 52 Jewish organizations in the United States, said the rally and call for a boycott are intended to send a message about human rights violations and other issues, like women and children being executed, stopping terrorism, and nuclear weapons programs.

The opening of the General Assembly comes three months after Ahmadinejad was re-elected president in an election that opponents said was rigged. Iranian military and police forces killed and wounded hundreds of protesters, while many others disappeared or have remained in prison. Evidence has surfaced that authorities ordered rape and torture of several demonstrators. Although the U.N. must admit Ahmadinejad into its building, Florida Republican Congresswoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen urged the Obama administration not to allow him into the country.Our responsibility as the UN's host country is trumped by our national security,she said.
Last week, a security group with White House connections urged the posh InterContinental Barclay Hotel to cancel its booking for Ahmadinejad. The group wrote the hotel that it should not be taking blood money from him. The New York Post obtained the letter to the hotel, which was told,By accommodating the Iranian delegation, the InterContinental not only endorses President Ahmadinejad's election but also turns a blind eye to the regime's flagrant violations of human rights and its commitment to illegally developing nuclear weapons.

European Union forecasts end to recession
ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 14, 2009

BRUSSELS -- The European Union is forecasting that the recession in the euro-zone and the EU will have ended in the third quarter with a resumption of modest economic growth.In an update to a May forecast, the EU see both the euro-zone and the EU growing 0.2 percent in the third quarter compared to the three months before, with growth at just 0.1 percent in the final quarter of the year.The EU executive did not change its prediction for the euro-zone and EU economies to shrink by 4 percent this year overall, saying the weak economy will continue to take its toll on jobs and public finances.

Eastern Europe not feeling the love from Obama By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 14, 1:58 pm ET

Czechs feel betrayed, Poles irked, Romanians slighted. Ask them who's to blame, and the answer may come as a surprise: President Barack Obama.George W. Bush fawned over Eastern Europe, and its leaders rushed to join his post-9/11 coalition of the willing.Now many — officials and ordinary citizens alike — are grumbling over what they perceive as the Obama administration's neglect.It's a startling shift in a region long accustomed to cozy ties with the United States.Now we see the beginning of indifference,said Tudor Salajean, a Romanian historian and researcher.At times, and from some corners, the new mood can even border on hostile. Obama's approaches to pressing world problems aren't worth a moldy onion,declared Mircea Mihaies, deputy head of the Romanian Cultural Institute.Two in three Bulgarians, Czechs, Poles and Romanians approve of Obama's foreign policy, according to a survey published earlier this month by the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan policy group. That may seem robust, but it pales in comparison to backing for Obama in Western Europe, where nine in 10 respondents support him.It's normal for relations to evolve, and at the moment there appear to be few pressing reasons to make eastern Europe a U.S. priority, said Janusz Bugajski, director of the New European Democracies project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.These countries may be victims of their own success,Bugajski said Monday.They're fairly stable. There's no major social unrest or political instability, no real security threats. The more successful you are, the more you tend to slide down the agenda of U.S. foreign policy.

They do understand that this is the new face of America — that it's not to anybody's advantage to be anti-American,he added.Broadly speaking, Obama is still admired by many ordinary Easterners. In April, delivering one of his first major foreign policy speeches with Prague's medieval castle as a backdrop, the U.S. leader invoked decades of trans-Atlantic friendship that helped liberate nations hemmed in by the Iron Curtain — and he was cheered by thousands who packed a square.Yet after eight years of being wooed and courted by Bush, they're just not feeling the love from Obama — and the reasons vary widely.Czech and Polish leaders bristle at America's new ambivalence over a Bush administration plan to base a missile defense shield in the two ex-communist countries. The system, which would put 10 interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, had been touted as a strategic way to counter a threat from Iran.But recently, senior U.S. Defense Department officials said they're considering other options. The Czech-Polish plan had infuriated Russia, and the Obama administration has been working to improve relations with the Kremlin.

It gets even more complicated: Although the Czech and Polish governments agreed to host the system, it's been highly unpopular among ordinary citizens, who staged boisterous protests. Now, some leaders fear they may have exposed themselves to needless flak.I would consider it a dirty trick if the Czech Republic and Poland would end up unprotected,Alexandr Vondra, a former deputy Czech prime minister and one-time ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press.Vondra was among a group of prominent Eastern European ex-leaders who wrote to Obama in July, saying the region is gripped by anxiety that his overtures to Russia could lead him to ignore them.If we don't take care of relations between the U.S. and Central and Eastern Europe, it could lead to a certain worsening of relations in the future,he told the AP.

Poles have other reasons to be rankled at Washington.

On Sept. 1, the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was there for the commemoration. So was French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The U.S. sent National Security Adviser James Jones — a move seen as a snub by Poles who expected Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. They don't want us. They don't care about us,commentator Lukasz Kwiecien wrote in a scathing editorial for the national daily Dziennik under the headline:We are paying for our blind love for America.And there could be consequences, warned Bartosz Weglarczyk, a columnist for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.I have no doubt that under the new administration, Washington has neglected relations with Poland and with Central Europe as a whole. Some say, and I count myself among them, that it is a mistake and that one day Washington may pay dearly for it,he said.Romanians, among the many Eastern Europeans whose troops fought alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, now feel hung out to dry over allegations their government let the CIA set up a secret prison where suspected terrorists were interrogated and possibly tortured.

The Romanian government has vehemently denied any complicity. But the allegations persist: Last month, The New York Times, citing a former CIA official, reported that one of the covert detention centers was housed in downtown Bucharest. Romanian President Traian Basescu, a staunch supporter of Bush, recently spoke nostalgically about the endless list of common objectives that had been reached with the Bush White House.This summer, for the first time, Basescu skipped the U.S. Embassy's July 4 party.Then Romanian media reported that the new U.S. ambassador — who traditionally would get a special audience with Basescu — instead had to present his diplomatic credentials on the same day as the new Canadian, Dutch, Filipino, German and Mexican ambassadors.The U.S. envoy, Mark H. Gitenstein, plays down talk of eroding support for Washington. Romania, he insists, remains the most pro-American country in Europe.Romanian school teacher Roxana Pop isn't so sure, even though she thinks Obama is doing a better job than Bush.America's influence wasn't always a good thing,said Pop, 28.They should leave us alone ... We shouldn't be at anybody's beck and call.Associated Press Writers Karel Janicek in Prague, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Ryan Lucas and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE SEPT 15,2009

09:30 AM -2.72
10:00 AM -6.04
10:30 AM -7.93
11:00 AM +11.94
11:30 AM -1.81
12:00 PM +9.90
12:30 PM +15.27
01:00 PM +36.28
01:30 PM +52.68
02:00 PM +56.76
02:30 PM +61.90
03:00 PM +54.87
03:30 PM +82.28
04:00 PM +56.61 9683.41

S&P 500 1052.63 +3.29

NASDAQ 2102.64 +10.86

GOLD 1,009.00 +7.90

OIL 70.98 +2.04

TSE 300 11,495.83 +163.79

CDNX 1269.35 +15.52

S&P/TSX/60 690.56 +9.37

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +9.69%
S&P +16.17%
Nasdaq +32.64%
TSX Advances 752,declines 753,unchanged 228,Volume 438,090,111.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 370,Declines 499,Unchanged 345,Volume 237,635,058.

Dow +3 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +25 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $997.70.OIL opens at $69.35 today.
WERE STILL LOOKING TO AUDIT THE FED.THE HOUSE HAS 282 AND SENATE HAS 23 MEMBERS SIGNED UP.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today so far.
Dow +61 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,986,declines 1,543,unchanged 113,New Highs 188,New Lows 57.
Volume 2,807,049,869.
NASDAQ Advances 1,254,declines 1,261,unchanged 145,New highs 90,New Lows 06.
Volume 949,758,487.
TSX Advances 747,declines 492,unchanged 234,Volume 231,225,521.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 293,Declines 305,Unchanged 287,Volume 113,299,377.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -46 points at low today.
Dow +87 points at high today.
Dow +0.59% today Volume 223,989,482.
Nasdaq +0.52% today Volume 2,287,207,315.
S&P 500 +0.31% today Volume N/A

THE CRISIS IN EUROPE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254090989&play=1
HEDGING BETS ON REGULATION
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254071361&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254089082&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254035143&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254511060&play=1
OBAMA ON REGULATION
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253693234&play=1
TIRE TRADE WAR WITH CHINA
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1253936361&play=1
BANKING BACK FROM THE BRINK
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254430805&play=1
BUSINESS NEWS NETWORK NEWS
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip213435

(TWINKLE TOES MAGIC MONEY) TIM GEITHNER ON GMA
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/geithner-on-good-morning-_n_286876.html
(HELLICOPTER) BEN BERNANKE Q&A AT BROOKINGS TODAY-SHADOW BANKING REMARKS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1254583289&play=1

Bernanke says U.S. recession very likely overBy: Reuters | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:21 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday that the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression was probably over, but the recovery would be slow and take time to create new jobs.Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time,Bernanke told a questioner after giving a speech to a Brookings Institution conference.The general view of most forecasters is that that pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect given the depth of the recession because of ongoing headwinds,he said, warning that this would delay job creation.U.S. unemployment has soared to 9.7 percent since the recession began in December 2007, and is forecast to push to 10 percent in the months ahead.Bernanke cautioned that growth next year would probably be not much faster than the economy's so-called long-run potential rate, which meant that it would be slow to take up slack and pare back the level of unemployment.Therefore the unemployment rate will tend to come down quite slowly,Bernanke said.(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Bernanke Says Shadow Banking Won’t Return to Pre-Crisis Size
By Craig Torres and Scott Lanman

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the so-called shadow banking system, including securitization of loans, is likely to be smaller and subject to more regulatory oversight than before the financial crisis. I imagine that the shadow banking system, at least in the medium term, will not return to the size it was before,Bernanke said today at the Brookings Institution in Washington, responding to audience questions after a speech.To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net; Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.net.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS - Governments Need Plan to Dispose of Crisis Assets, Shed Risk: IMF By Jacqueline Deslauriers IMF Survey online September 15, 2009 http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2009/073109.pdf

Governments, having propped up the financial system during the global crisis, now need a plan to dispose of the assets they took over and reduce their greatly enlarged risk exposures, according to an IMF study.This will take time, and it is certainly too early to withdraw some forms of support. But governments should have a well-defined strategy for, initially, managing the assets and risks they took on, and then gradually winding them down. The IMF paper,Crisis-Related Measures in the Financial System and Sovereign Balance Sheet Risks,issued on September 15, provides a practical overview of the principles and actions governments need to consider in moving towards an eventual exit from financial sector support. The study points out that, contrary to popular opinion, government support to the financial sector has so far had only a limited impact on fiscal deficits. Other stimulus measures have been far more important. But the interventions mean that governments’ risk exposures have risen sharply. Guarantees may be called, announced lending facilities may be used, loans may not be repaid, and assets may not retain their value,the study says. This means that the ultimate cost of the interventions to the taxpayer will depend on what governments do from now on. Governments must strike a delicate balance between continuing to support the financial sector for as long as is needed and saving money by closing off access to the measures now available.

Broad approach

Since not only governments, but also central banks and other public sector institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, combined to support the financial sector, the risks facing the state must be confronted with a broad framework—the sovereign balance sheet. The authors call for strategic management of the assets and liabilities of all relevant components of the public sector, including the central bank and other public financial institutions, and of associated off-balance sheet risks, mainly the guarantees. Now we’ve got to get from a statement of desired targets to spelling out the nuts and bolts of how to get there,said Adrienne Cheasty, Senior Advisor in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department.Ways of eventually unwinding the stimulus and disposing of assets taken over during the crisis are likely to be discussed by policymakers at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Istanbul in early October.I do think the time is right for policymakers to develop their exit strategies – because failure to clarify and formulate these plans will risk undermining confidence and the recovery process itself,said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF, in the Sixth Annual Bundesbank Lecture in Berlin on September 4.

Plans boost credibility

The advantage of setting out how financial support will be managed and eventually unwound, and the communication of this to other policy makers and the financial markets, is the predictability it conveys to all actors in the process. The IMF paper breaks down the top priorities for managing central bank and government balance sheets.For central banks, these include:-Taking stock of new risks, and balance sheet mismatches, and revising management practices to take these into account.-Shedding credit risk from direct lending to the private sector, either by shrinking the balance sheet or by transferring risky assets to the government, so that these can be managed as part of the budgetary process.-Adjusting the terms of access to central bank lending and liquidity facilities as market conditions change, with the goal of protecting the central bank balance sheet.

For governments, priorities include:-Clarifying the framework for managing assets, either through asset management companies or a decentralized approach.-Setting out clear and transparent rules for participation in asset management—including for buying and selling, valuation, and operational autonomy.-Insulating themselves from the cost of guarantees, by charging appropriate fees for guarantees to help set the right incentives, and making budget provisions to pay for these,-Considering debt refinancing to increase maturity where cost-effective.-Maintaining a level playing field between institutions to ensure fair competition.

Manage expectations, disclose risks

Getting from a phase of large interventions and stimulus to an unwinding phase will require governments to be clear in deciding their deficit and debt targets, in order to establish timetables for returning to a more normal state of affairs, according to the study. The trajectory of deficits and debt over time will in turn define governments’ financing needs and inform the management of their assets and liabilities.Given the high level of uncertainty, risk assessments will have to be a central part of the strategy.. They will need to take into account various potential costs and shocks as well as different assumptions about the prices and recovery rates for the assets.Sovereign balance-sheet-risk management allows for a comprehensive systemic risk management and better monitoring of the interconnections and transmission channels of sovereign risks,said Udaibir Das, Chief of the Sovereign Assets and Liabilities Division in the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.This framework is, by construction, the most consistent operational approach for ensuring sovereign creditworthiness.Accurate valuation of assets and liabilities is crucial for understanding the impact of the financial support on fiscal solvency, the IMF said. The paper discourages any aggressive deviation away from the use of mark-to-market accounting, which allows for price discovery through the fair value granted the asset in a liquid market. As a rule, it is better for governments to know the worst and use full information when making policy decisions, according to the study.

The IMF study also points out that transparency and accountability will be key to maintaining confidence. Several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan and others, publish full statements of fiscal risks, including all guarantees provided by the government and in some cases estimates of potential losses.Plans for unwinding help preserve taxpayers’ money.The paper outlines a few key criteria for successfully reversing central bank and government interventions, such as:-Selling-off assets in such a way to maximize the return for the taxpayer, and avoid guarantees being claimed.-Preserving central bank independence by closing lending facilities and removing support for specific credit markets.-Returning the central bank and the government to their core responsibilities for monetary policy and budgets respectively, and strengthening the regulatory framework.-Restoring the role of the private sector in the financial system, with private investors bearing the risk and rewards for their action.

Policy coordination

Also critical to the global recovery will be policy coordination of the unwinding both within and across countries. The key purpose of international policy coordination will be to keep everyone informed and maintain confidence in the market, the IMF said.The IMF study stressed that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for countries to divest themselves of the assets and liabilities acquired during the crisis, and there are a number of complex issues surrounding timing and sequencing. That said, some practical guidelines may help:-Redundant or ineffective facilities can be closed first, though it is important to choose these carefully.-A gradual approach is likely to be required, to test whether financial stabilization can be sustained without support, and to avoid abrupt valuation changes.-Access to support should be made increasingly less attractive, and risks transferred to the private sector, by raising interest rates and guarantee fees over time.-Past crises have shown that central to any plan is a clear communications strategy by the government outlining its intentions, which helps all players, including financial markets, know what to expect.As part of its ongoing work to help governments and central banks tackle these issues, the IMF will host a high-level conference to discuss the complex policy implications of unwinding public interventions in the financial system. The meeting will be held on October 29 in Washington, D.C. and will include government and central bank officials, as well as academics and private sector participants.A recent article in the September issue of the IMF’s Finance & Development magazine discussed a number of the related macro-policy issues surrounding global economic recovery.Comments on this article should be sent to imfsurvey@imf.org

Fed's steps to aid banking system raise risks, too By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer – Mon Sep 14, 5:26 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve's bold steps to prevent the banking industry from collapsing last year have injected new dangers into the financial system.Analysts and government officials fear that the nation's biggest banks will be emboldened to resume excessive risk-taking on the belief that the Fed will be there — again — to prevent them from collapsing.They also worry that the Fed's unilateral actions during last year's crisis could come back to haunt it — by jeopardizing its political independence. The Fed's freedom from politics is critical to its ability to do what's right for the long-term health of the economy, even if that means taking action that causes short-term pain, such as raising interest rates.The legacy of the Great Recession is that the Fed will be more likely to intervene quickly during crises, but also more active in preventing them in the first place.This has consequences for businesses and consumers. To head off another speculative bubble, for example, the Fed could choose to quickly push up interest rates, resulting in higher borrowing costs for businesses and more expensive loans for consumers to buy houses and cars.To fight the recession and financial crisis, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke unleashed some of the most aggressive actions in the history of the central bank, which was created in 1913 after a series of bank panics.He slashed interest rates to record lows near zero. He provided low-cost loans for banks and — for the first time in the Fed's history — bought debt so companies would have short-term commercial paper loans available to pay for salaries and supplies. The Fed also bought mortgage-backed securities and government bonds to drive down interest rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.

For much of the Fed's nearly 100-year history, it was reluctant to meddle deeply in financial crises, especially to save individual firms. In 1998, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues engineered a private bailout of a hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management, out of fear its collapse would endanger the economy. But no money from the Fed or the government was used.The financial turmoil that erupted last year forced the Fed to rethink its precedents. A student of the Great Depression throughout his academic career, Bernanke grasped when the credit markets froze last fall that to revive lending and stabilize banks he needed to quickly pump trillions of dollars into the financial system.Economists believe future Feds will be similarly interventionist during major crises, with a broader view of the central bank's role as the ultimate backstop for banks, providing them with loans when they can't get money anywhere else.They changed forever what the Fed does in a crisis, says Alice Rivlin, who served as the Fed's No. 2 official in the late 1990s.The next time we have a major, or perhaps a minor, crisis, people will expect the Fed to take much more aggressive action than they expected this time.The problem is that the bold actions the Fed took over the past year can, paradoxically, encourage the very types of high-risk bets by Wall Street firms that can feed speculative bubbles — and possibly another financial crisis.On Monday — the first anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse — President Barack Obama warned Wall Street against returning to the sort of reckless behavior that threatened the nation with a second Great Depression. And he warned financial executives that they could not count on any more bailouts.Still, a precedent has been set whereby the government will come to the banks' rescue if their investment mistakes turn out to be colossal enough to potentially drag down the entire financial system. The risk is that this creates a moral hazard on Wall Street.Unless Congress creates a mechanism to safely wind down big financial companies whose collapse could threaten the economy, the Fed might be forced again next time to help bail out individual firms. Bear Stearns, American International Group Inc., Citigroup and Bank of America were among companies that gained help in the past year from either the Fed or Treasury.Moral hazard has to be a concern for anyone involved with financial policy,says Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council.

Another concern is maintaining the Fed's independence to set monetary policy without political interference. Lawmakers who believe the Fed overreached last year — by essentially printing money to save troubled banks — could try to exert more influence over the agency down the road.Already, efforts are gaining on Capitol Hill for congressional investigators to audit Fed decisions on interest rates, which influence economic growth, employment and inflation. Economists fear the Fed could succumb to political pressure by Congress or the president to keep interest rates low for too long. Through the Fed's history, such fights have waxed and waned. The last big battle fought was by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. He caused a deep recession when he jacked up interest rates to end 1970s stagflation,a toxic mix of stagnant economic activity and inflation. Bernanke will be under intense political pressure when it comes time to rein in the emergency lending programs and to start boosting interest rates — necessary moves to avoid unleashing a dangerous bout of inflation.Bernanke — and his successors — will also be expected to intervene more quickly to prevent speculative asset bubbles. This was made clear by the widespread damage caused by the housing bust, which ignited the global financial crisis.House prices tanked and foreclosures surged. Financial institutions holding soured mortgages suffered hundreds of billions in losses. Problems spread from high-risk to more creditworthy borrowers. Eventually, a range of loan categories — from business to auto loans, home equity credit lines and short-term corporate lending — froze up.

To deflate the next bubble early, the Fed could push up interest rates to slow down economic growth. And to limit the chances of another bubble forming in the first place, the Fed could boost the amount of capital that financial companies need to hold to offset potential losses. This effectively minimizes how much they can bet.
Any effort by the Fed to prevent asset bubbles would illustrate just how much the central bank has changed since the current crisis erupted. When Wall Street banks and investors are making money on their gambles, those on the winning side don't want to see the Fed pull the plug. Politicians don't, either. For years, the consensus at the Fed has been that central bankers' role is to stabilize the financial system after speculative bubbles burst — not try to prevent them in the first place.It's hard to see how these precedents won't last for a while,says John Taylor, a Treasury official in the Bush administration, an expert on Fed policy and now a Stanford economics professor.The Fed's interventions will be more active than in the past.As Congress revamps financial regulations, the Obama administration wants the Fed to regulate financial giants whose demise could endanger the entire economy. It also wants the Fed to police the financial system for excessive risks. Doing so could push the Fed even deeper into Americans' economic lives — by influencing what financial products and services are available and at what prices.

But the Fed also could lose powers if it is stripped of its consumer oversight protections as envisioned by the Obama administration. Because of the Fed's failure to head off the financial crisis, some in Congress prefer to see those duties spread among the Fed and other regulators. After a mostly hands-off stance during Alan Greenspan's 18-year tenure at the Fed, the Bernanke Fed responded to congressional and public outrage and cracked down on shady mortgages and abusive credit card practices. Many of the dubious mortgages Greenspan had refused to clamp down on were eventually blamed for contributing to the housing boom and its bust. Whatever happens, the Fed — whether forced by Congress or not — will have to become more open about its actions. And by explaining its new financial tools to the public and investors, the Fed might be able to increase their effectiveness.Bernanke is beginning to allow some much-needed sunshine into the mausoleum, says Kenneth Thomas, a lecturer in finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.I think it will persist even after Bernanke is gone. There's a sense the doors of the temple need to be thrown open.

Oil prices fall on US-China trade row, supply concerns Mon Sep 14, 4:13 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil prices pulled back Monday amid fears that a US-China trade row could derail a fragile global economic recovery, adding to pressure from an oversupply of crude.New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, finished at 68.86 dollars a barrel, down 43 cents from Friday's closing level.London's Brent North Sea crude for October dropped 25 cents to settle at 67.44 dollars.The action came after a sharp retreat at the end of last week as traders took profits from a recent rally and mulled an oversupply of oil.Oil bloat may get the bull's goat as we are entering the weakest demand period of the year,said Phil Flynn, of PFG Best.An escalating trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on markets. China filed a World Trade Organization complaint over what it alleged were unfair tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese tire imports.The move was in response to US President Barack Obama's decision Friday to impose punitive duties of 35 percent on the Chinese imports.Oil prices continue their downside move as Obama gets into a trade war with China and the dollar starts to show some signs of life,Flynn said.If this escalates more it can have a dramatic impact on many commodities,he added.

The United States is the world's biggest energy-consuming nation, followed by China.

Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar said the trade row is weighing on market sentiment as increased protectionism could hinder a global economic recovery.Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to maintain its current production levels, citing downside risks to a global economic recovery.OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of world oil supplies, said the market remains oversupplied.

Oil bulls are now on the ropes as it gets harder to dismiss a global oversupply, PFG Best's Flynn said.Flynn noted that US oil stockpiles were above their average high of the past five years.US reserves of distillates, which include heating oil, remain 25 percent higher than a year ago, according to official data.

Dollar hits another year low vs euro on EU comments as traders look for riskier investments Associated Press 09/14/09 3:00 PM PDT

NEW YORK — The dollar extended its slide to fresh year lows against the euro Monday after the European Union said that the recession in the euro-zone and EU will likely have ended in the third quarter.The EU executive said it sees both the euro-zone and the EU growing 0.2 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous three months and expanding just 0.1 percent in the final quarter of the year.The strength of recent economic data suggests the global slowdown is drawing to a close, pushing investors away from the safe haven of the dollar in favor of commodities and riskier currencies.Traders have been ditching the dollar for other currencies as stock markets posted strong gains last week and the Group of 20 finance officials pledged to maintain government spending, low interest rates and increased money supply to shore up the global economy.Those moves should help boost economic activity and liquidity in financial markets, increasing investors' appetite for assets around the world at the expense of the dollar.Also Monday, it became clear a trade war isn't likely between the U.S. and China as each side recognizes its economy has too much to lose. China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over new U.S. tariffs on tires.The U.S. represents a huge market for Chinese exports, while China is the largest holder of U.S. government debt at a time when the federal deficit has swollen to record levels because of economic rescue measures.

The 16-nation euro advanced to $1.4614 in late afternoon trading Monday compared with $1.4594 Friday. Earlier in the session, it climbed to $1.4652, its highest point this year.The break of $1.45 has been a strong signal for a quick test of the $1.50 area, with $1.47 being still the intermediate target,UniCredit analysts said. The bank has a nine-month spread for the euro of between $1.48 and $1.56.In other trading, the dollar fell to 90.18, its lowest point since February, before trading at 90.90 Japanese yen compared with 90.57 yen Friday.The British pound, meanwhile, fell to $1.6574 from $1.6687 after the Council of Mortgage Lenders said the U.K. mortgage lending rose significantly in July for the second straight month but the market is likely to remain subdued for some time.The dollar fell to 1.0352 Swiss francs compared to 1.0369 francs and rose to 1.0842 Canadian dollars from 1.0771.

The dollar index has hovered near a 12-month low against a basket of major currencies over the past week in American trading. It fell as low as 76.5 — its lowest level since last September — against the basket, which includes the euro, yen, Canadian dollar, British pound, Swedish krona and Swiss franc.

China hunting for euro bargains
ANDREW WILLIS Today SEPT 15,09 @ 09:14 CET

EUOBSERVER / BEIJING – China has given another clear indication that it is carefully monitoring the strength of the euro currency as it seeks to diversify its large supply of foreign reserves away from the weakened dollar. I don't think the dollar reserve will change in the near-term but we don't want to put all our eggs in the same basket,China's ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Qin Gang told EUobserver.

The country's political elite has watched with growing alarm over the past year as the US federal reserve has injected billions of dollars into the US economy in its fight to stave off financial collapse. However, the long-term inflationary risks associated with this threaten to greatly devalue the $1 trillion in dollar reserves, roughly half its total, currently held by China. The strength of the US currency is already suffering from the downward pressure created by the country's large budget and trade deficits, but a switch to the euro is not a foregone conclusion, said Mr Qin.If conditions are right we want to hold more euros, but it must be in our interest,he said.We must get good value. We want our reserves to appreciate, or at least not devalue.The current strength of the euro means the Chinese government may not be buying any time soon.The currency did well against the dollar on Monday (14 September), breaching $1.46 on news that both the 27-member EU and 16-member eurozone look set to record positive growth in the third quarter of this year.

A strong Europe

Speaking more generally about Sino-EU relations, Mr Qin said China wanted to see a strong EU help play an important role in constructing global multilateralism. A three-pillar table is more stable than a two-pillar table,he said, referring to the current dominance in global affairs of the US and China that has lead some commentators to refer to a G2.Four is even better,he added. I think the EU is now having some problems internally,Mr Qin said of the ongoing difficulties surrounding ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the proposed set of new rules for the bloc which deals largely with institutional reform.Asked whether China was ever frustrated by the fragmented nature of the EU and its difficulties in achieving greater integration he said: You have 27 member states and 500 million people so it takes time. Maybe it [enlargement] was too quick.

EU returns to growth, but jobs still under threat
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today SEPT 15,09 @ 09:13 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is on track to have exited the recession this quarter, according to the latest economic forecast from the European Commission, but the recovery remains fragile and weakness in labour markets and pressures on public finances - where people really feel the pinch - continue apace.For the third quarter of 2009, the EU executive foresees GDP growth across the bloc of 0.2 percent, although fourth quarter growth moderates somewhat at a predicted 0.1 percent. Fears of a prolonged, deep recession are fading, according to the forecast.However, uncertainty remains rife, and while the recovery may surprise on the upside in the very short term, how sustainable it will be remains to be seen,the commission said in a statement.While the second half of the year is on track to show better than expected performance, the first half of the year was worse, leading the commission forecast to remain unchanged for 2009 overall, declining four percent this year.The situation has improved – mainly due to the unprecedented amounts of money pumped into the economy by central banks and public authorities – but the weak economy will continue to take its toll on jobs and public finances,warned economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

The so-called automatic stabilisers native to most European welfare-state economies, such as unemployment benefits and other public supports have played an important role in dampening the adverse impact of the financial crisis,notes the forecast, but these are coming to an end and sizeable additional impulses from this source are unlikely in the quarters to come.Moreover, one of the biggest buttresses to consumer spending, the car scrapping schemes, notably in France, Germany and Italy, are terminating, which will weigh heavily on private consumption.Despite the return to growth, unemployment is still likely to rise, as is normal in recessions. There is usually a lag of two to three quarters between a return to growth and labour market improvements.Coming atop this, government deficits - exacerbated as a result of the stimulus spending, bail-outs of financial institutions and the added impact of falling government revenues - could be even higher than expected at the time of the EU's spring economic forecast.Reflecting this, the forecast warns that the recovery may therefore prove volatile and sub-par further down the line.The forecast also asks: whether this positive surprise reflects mostly one-off factors - or whether it is the start of a sustained recovery.

Reasons to be cheerful

Supporting the more optimistic outlook are data showing that the global economy is no longer in freefall. Business and consumer confidence are encouraging, according to the report, along with trade and industrial production numbers, while growth in China has remained robust. The US for its part, continues to decline, but at a slower pace.Mr Almunia however warned that complacency was not warranted and spoken out against an easing of recovery measures as has been suggested in some quarters.We need to continue implementing the recovery measures announced for this year and 2010 and accelerate the repair of the financial sector to make sure banks are ready to lend at reasonable terms when companies and households resume their investment plans.But he also said that EU states should begin to plan how they are going to correct the dire situation of public finances - but together, so as not to harm each others' economies in the process.We need to define a clear, credible and co-ordinated exit strategy to put public finances progressively back on a sustainable path and to find the necessary resources to increase Europe's growth and jobs potential,said Mr Almunia.If EU member states do not agree on a synchronised schedule for the wrapping up of stimulus supports, this will create protectionist tensions and inefficiencies,he said.The forecast is based on data from the seven largest EU economies, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK, which combined make up 80 percent of the bloc's economic output.Germany will see the largest boost in the third quarter, with 0.7 percent GDP growth, although dropping back down to 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, while Spain will continue to slide, although at a shallower rate, dropping 0.4 percent in the third quarter and 0.2 percent in the fourth,The Netherlands for its part will return to growth only in the fourth quarter and Poland, which had maintained growth throughout the first half of the year, climbing 0.3 and 0.5 percent over the respective quarters, will grow 0.1 percent this quarter and stagnate on 0.0 percent in the last quarter of the year.Despite the year-end easing, Poland will be the only country in the EU to post positive growth for 2009 as a whole.

Commodity ETFs' Future Under A Cloud Trang Ho Trang Ho – Mon Sep 14, 6:47 pm ET

ETF providers usually ax ETFs because of low demand. But Deutsche Bank has killed a successful exchange traded note, PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Long ETN (NYSEArca:DXO - News), not due to lack of popularity but because of new exchange rules. The note, which doubled the return of oil, ceased trading on Sept. 9.Matt Hougan, managing director of ETF Analytics at IndexUniverse.com, explains what happened and what it means for other commodity-linked exchange traded products. At the center of the issue is the size of positions ETF firms amass in futures contracts in order to hedge the opposite positions they take when they sell their products to ETF investors.

IBD: Why did Deutsche Bank shut down DXO? With $450 million in assets, it was a hit.

Hougan: No one is saying for sure. But if you read between the lines, it appears that Nymex cracked down on the fund. Basically, Nymex told Deutsche Bank that it had accumulated too big a position in the contract that DXO tracked -- the July 2010 WTI Crude Oil futures contract. Deutsche had to reduce that position. Not many people know it, but exchanges have the power to enforce position limits in all commodities. They haven't used that power much in the past. But with all the regulatory scrutiny surrounding commodity ETFs these days, they've started to change their tune.IBD: But ETNs are debt notes that don't actually hold the underlying asset. Why would new exchange rules affect them? Hougan: Because the position had to be hedged. Deutsche Bank isn't interested in having open short exposure to the crude market. It's interested in making money by offering a note and charging investors a management fee. So while the ETN itself doesn't own crude oil futures, Deutsche Bank needed to find a way to hedge its position. It did that by buying the relevant futures contracts.

IBD: Why did Nymex start imposing position limits? What's the upshot of these new rules on commodities trading? Hougan: That's a good question. I think the answer is (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) Chairman Gary Gensler. Gensler has been very aggressive about pressuring the exchanges to use their position to limit powers. In July, he directly criticized the exchanges for failing to do so in public, written testimony. It looks like they hear him loud and clear.Gensler doesn't really see a role for index investors in the commodities market. Most people expect the CFTC to announce new position limits on energy commodities in October that will seriously impact the ETF space. I think those limits will be harsh and there will be few exemptions for so-called speculators like ETFs.

IBD: Could Deutsche Bank hedge the note some other way? Why aren't those options feasible? Hougan: Yes, it could have done a lot of things. It could have spread its hedging bets across multiple contract months, rather than focusing on the single month that DXO tracked. It could have bought Brent crude contracts to supplement its WTI exposure. It could have bought WTI futures on another exchange, such as ICE. Or it could have bought swap agreements from third parties.The first three options weren't feasible because DXO is an ETN. ETNs guarantee investors perfect tracking against a benchmark. Had Deutsche Bank bought, say, both June 2010 and July 2010 contracts, even that small deviation from the index (which tracks on July 2010 contracts) would have put too much money at risk. Remember, DB was only charging 0.75% in annual expenses for the note.Private swap contracts should have been an option. But because of all the regulatory scrutiny, commodity swap contracts are getting increasingly expensive. And DXO was a leveraged fund: It needed 200% swap exposure, despite charging the same expense ratio as nonleveraged commodity funds.It probably wasn't worth the money to run DXO with private swaps in the current market.

IBD: What are the implications for other commodity ETFs and ETNs?

Hougan: I think this is the tip of the iceberg. I think we'll see more funds and notes run into trouble due to exchange-driven position limits. More importantly, I think we'll soon see federal limits from the CFTC. The end result is that commodity ETFs and ETNs will become more expensive and less transparent, and will do a worse job tracking their benchmarks. I don't think Gensler will succeed in eliminating them from the market, but I do think he will make it hard for them to thrive.

Harper, Obama seen pushing for continued stimulus By Randall Palmer – Mon Sep 14, 5:41 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will likely stress the need to keep economic stimulus funds flowing worldwide when they meet at the White House on Wednesday, a Canadian spokesman said.The most important thing is staying the course, making sure that that the different stimulus packages are implemented without obstruction and without delay,Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas told reporters on Monday.The meeting will take place a week before a G20 summit on global recession and recovery that Obama will host in Pittsburgh.In Washington, Harper is expected to press Obama for a swift reciprocal deal that will enable Canadian goods and services to get around buy American provisions and enable U.S. companies to bid on Canadian provincial government contracts.Soudas suggested the United States has accepted the basic concept of opening up government contracts at the U.S. state and Canadian provincial levels. Both sides have appointed negotiators, so that speaks for itself,he said.Of greater importance may be the chance to solidify a relationship between the leaders, one a Conservative and the other a Democrat, of nations that have the world's biggest trading relationship.

The two did not have a planned 15-minute bilateral meeting at the North American three amigos summit in Mexico last month, at Obama's request, so that they could have a longer visit in Washington.It's important for the leader of our closest friend and ally to come to Washington to meet with the U.S. president early on, reciprocating the Obama trip to Ottawa in February,said Eric Farnsworth, vice president at the Council of the Americas in Washington.They have met numerous times already since the inauguration, but the symbolism of a visit to Washington is also important in the scheme of things.The hour-long Oval Office chat will be a much scaled down meeting from Obama's day-long trip to Ottawa in February, soon after his inauguration, which dominated Canadian headlines for days.Chris Braddock, senior director for procurement policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, said a formal agreement at the White House meeting on opening up government contracts was unlikely.There may be some progress, but I think the timing would be hard-pressed frankly,he said.The talks could touch on Canada's plan to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in 2011, which is a sensitive topic in Washington, but Soudas said Ottawa would not be dissuaded to extend its deadline even if asked.Our position is clear,he said flatly.On Thursday, Harper will head to Capitol Hill, meeting the Senate majority and minority leaders and the House speaker, to stress the need for both countries to open up their markets to each other. He will then give an evening speech in New York.(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; editing by Peter Galloway)

EU sounds unemployment warning ahead of economic recovery - Summary
Posted : Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:41:17 GMT

Brussels- European Union governments should be braced for more job losses, officials in Brussels said Monday as they published forecasts pointing to a slow recovery in the 27-member bloc. According to the European Commission's latest forecasts, EU gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and by 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, after contracting sharply during the first half of the year. Overall, EU GDP for the year was expected to shrink by 4 per cent - in line with previous estimates.Unfortunately, unemployment levels will continue to go up, and employment levels will continue to decrease, since the negative impact of the crisis on the labour market has a lag of two or three quarters,said Joaquin Almunia, the European Union's economic and monetary affairs commissioner.His comments came amid the latest EU figures showing that the number of persons employed in the EU had decreased by 0.6 per cent, or 1.44 million, in the three months to June when compared to the first quarter of the year.Unemployment in the 16-member eurozone has already exceeded the 15-million mark, with the jobless rate in the EU as a whole surging to a four-year high of 9.0 per cent over the summer.Despite marked improvements in the performances of the EU's largest economies, unemployment in the EU was likely to exceed the 10-per cent mark next year, officials said.The situation has improved - mainly due to the unprecedented amounts of money pumped into the economy by central banks and public authorities - but the weak economy will continue to take its toll on jobs and public finances, Almunia said.

The commissioner said governments should provide training schemes and promote active labour market policies designed to ensure that the unemployed can find a job once the economy fully recovers. EU governments have pumped billions of euros into their economies to mitigate the impact of the bloc's worst recession in decades. According to Almunia, additional discretionary spending will have totalled 2.5 per cent of the EU's GDP over the 2009-10 period. If automatic stabilizers such as unemployment benefit payments are also taken into account, the size of the EU's stimulus package will have amounted to 5.5 per cent of GDP by next year.But with this additional spending leading to ballooning budget deficits across the EU, Almunia once again urged governments to start thinking about how to rein in public spending.We need to define a clear, credible and coordinated exit strategy to put public finances progressively back on a sustainable path and to find the necessary resources to increase Europe's growth and jobs potential,Almunia said.The governments of Ireland and Spain are among those that have already announced tax hikes in order to reduce public debt.Almunia insisted that Monday's figures should be treated with a mix of optimism and prudence,noting that the speed of the recovery would depend on a number of factors, including the fragility of the financial sector and the impact of weak labour markets.Monday's interim forecasts were based on the outlook for Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Britain, which together account for 80 per cent of the EU economy. Of these, only Spain was expected to remain in recession until at least 2010.respective author or news agency

Regulation-The Hard Truth About Financial Regulation
Liz Moyer, 09.14.09, 06:00 AM EDT

For a year, lawmakers have struggled--and failed--to figure out how to make the system safer. Is anyone surprised? It's been a year since the $600 billion bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and the financial market meltdown that forced the government into a multitrillion-dollar rescue of the U.S. banking system. But for all the talk and hand wringing (and billions in direct government equity stakes in major banks and loan and debt guarantees) there's also been little real progress on how, or if, Washington might regulate its way out of this kind of mess in the future. Don't expect that to change anytime soon, as markets become more, not less, complex and interconnected.Despite multiple layers of government oversight and industry self-policing, dangerous gaps in regulation allowed a speculative bubble to build, and then burst, rocking the financial system as it hasn't been since the Great Depression. Its corollary, the belief that the government would step in to prevent an important bank from collapsing, created a sense of complacency about the risks being created. Yet neither the gaps nor the too big to fail concept have been eliminated.In late August, representatives from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission met to find a way to divide and conquer securities markets regulation, a feat made more difficult by the explosion in trading of complex derivatives and credit-related financial products in shadow off-exchange markets that aren't under direct supervision. These over-the-counter financial products are largely to blame for the collapse of Lehman and other major financial companies, including American International Group ( AIG - news - people ). The agencies, which have very different approaches to the workings of the stock markets, on the one hand, and the futures markets, on the other, have until Sept. 30 to come up with a plan.

The meetings are a precursor to the upcoming debates on the Obama administration's regulatory reforms, which some have criticized for stopping far short of the sweeping reforms ushered in by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s as his response to the Depression-era banking crisis. One of the biggest changes would be the naming of the Federal Reserve, already the lender of last resort, as the overseer of systemic risks.That raises the possibility the central bank could soon be in the business of monitoring activities in corners of the market that have been seen beyond reach, including hedge funds.Some of the proposals are bound to be mired in political infighting and turf guarding among the various federal agencies. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is already on record saying it favored the creation of a systemic risk council, not a single regulator, to oversee the risks undertaken by the biggest financial companies. As FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair noted in a recent opinion column in the New York Times,The truth is, no regulatory structure--be it a single regulator as in Britain or the multiregulator system we have in the United States--performed well in the crisis.Other proposals to close gaps in oversight include the creation of a regulatory agency for consumer financial protection, the consolidation of two federal regulatory agencies into one national bank regulator, and the bestowing of new powers on government agencies charged with overseeing banks, such as the ability to seize a non-bank financial company. Lehman, not a chartered commercial bank, fell as the government claimed to stand by helplessly watching. Rival investment banks Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ) and Morgan Stanley ( MS - news - people ), which would be the only traditional major Wall Street firms left standing after September 2008, rushed to take on bank holding company status to avoid the same fate.Having the power to seize a non-bank financial company would hopefully work to end the idea that any one company is too big to fail, Bair has said. But Lehman's collapse exposes another lesson the then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson seemed to be trying to avoid: in fact, too big to fail is alive and well.

For months regulators have acknowledged that some financial companies had simply grown too large and unwieldy and that dismantling them to a smaller size and more focused business would be to the benefit of the financial markets in general. Citigroup ( C - news - people ) and American International Group, each with varying degrees of government assistance, are undergoing such a downsizing. But their continued existence only confirms the government's belief that there are some companies that are deemed so systemically important that their demise would cause more damage than any government bailout to prevent that demise.By the time Lehman collapsed, after a mid-September weekend of frenzied negotiations among a dozen or so Wall Street chiefs at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the government had already taken control of mortgage titans Fannie Mae ( FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac ( FRE - news - people ). It was teetering close to being forced to rescue American International Group. It had already been accused of overstepping in the March collapse of Bear Stearns and the subsequent government-assisted sale to JPMorgan Chase ( JPM - news - people ). By the end of that fateful September, Wachovia and Washington Mutual would both be forced to sell to rival banks.Paulson was eager to prove he wouldn't let too big to fail change his mind about helping Lehman. But the subsequent freezing up of the credit and money markets--Lehman was a huge counterparty--prompted much second guessing about his failure to step in. A week later, spooked by the reverberations Lehman's collapse had on the markets, Paulson was proposing a $700 billion bailout originally intended as a government program to buy troubled assets from banks but which morphed into a program in which the government would take direct equity stakes in the major banks to prop up the system. Two of those banks, Citigroup and Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ), would have to return to the well multiple times for tens of billions of dollars in assistance.By this spring, the rescue had morphed into a big confidence boosting operation designed to buy banks enough time to earn their way out of their troubles, including a round of stress testing of the 19 biggest, presumably most important, banks and a round a capital-raising. By identifying these banks, and forcing them through a stress test that seemed geared for success, the government basically signaled which companies it views as too big to fail.

One solution advocated by Bair and others: break up big banks. Citigroup is splitting itself up after years of empire building that created a company many considered to unwieldy to manage effectively. But that won't really fix things. Lehman was far from the biggest Wall Street bank, in fact it was the smallest of the big four still standing after the collapse of another relatively small firm, Bear Stearns, in March. Interconnectedness was the problem. And in our increasingly sophisticated and complex global financial system, it still is. How to eliminate that risk? This may be tough to swallow, but the truth is that you can't.

Debt Markets The Coming Dollar Collapse Matthew Craft

Inflation fears have many predicting a large dollar drop. One Federated portfolio manager is prepared.Budget busting government spending, trillions in Treasury debt and the lowest interest rates on record have many worried about inflation and the damage it could inflict on the dollar once the global economy recovers. Ihab Salib, who oversees $3.5 billion in bond funds at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh, has already started laying his bets. Salib has taken positions in favor of commodity-rich countries and against those whose central banks have taken to cutting rates and buying assets from banks, the tactic known as quantitative easing. That means he has taken a shine to Australia, Venezuela and Brazil, which stand to benefit from a falling dollar through higher commodity prices, and is wary of the United Kingdom and Switzerland. He avoids U.S. dollar assets when he can. One fund carries no dollar exposure at all (see Betting On The Buck).The knocks against the dollar are rooted in classical economic theory -- the Federal Reserve and Treasury have flooded the world with greenbacks. Because the dollar is a reserve currency and because US Treasury debt has virtually no default risk, investors have sucked up as many dollars as the US has been willing to provide. But that's sidelined money. Eventually international investors are going to want to sell dollars and buy performing assets.Or, those investors are going to realize that they have too much dollar risk and are going to seek diversity by holding other currencies. This will drive foreign currencies higher against the dollar. As foreign currencies rise, particularly in the emerging markets, resource demand from the developing world, coupled with increased demand from the U.S., could drive commodities prices higher again.

We saw some of this in 2008 though commodities prices were also driven by speculation from highly leveraged hedge funds. This is one of the reasons that commodities prices spiked so sharply and then fell so quickly when the credit crisis hit and hedge funds were forced to sell securities to meet margin requirements as prime brokers forced them to deleverage.At the moment , governments and central banks in the US are more concerned about deflation as falling demand has brought consumer and commodities prices lower so they've cut interest rates and printed money to try and counter the trend.When you do that, your currency doesn't fare very well,Salib says.When the recession ends, investors' willingness to take on risk and look abroad will also push against the dollar and the Japanese Yen, the two safe havens' currencies. His retail international bond fund has 22% of its assets in Japan, versus 43% for his benchmark. The Japanese Yen hit a 13-year high against the dollar last year when investors rushed to pay off Yen-denominated debt used to pay for purchases elsewhere.

SPIN METER: Future bailouts are part of the plan By DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer – Mon Sep 14, 7:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Speaking on the anniversary of the start of the financial meltdown, President Barack Obama warned bankers not to expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.That's not a serious threat.Obama's plan for overhauling the financial system creates a new category for the largest banks, those whose failures would threaten the wider financial system. These Tier I companies will face stricter rules designed to limit how much risk they can take and how much damage they would do if they fail.But when big banks do fail, taxpayers still will be on the hook. Not rescuing these systemically important banks would, by definition, threaten the broader financial system.Big banks are always going to be too big for the government to let them go under in the middle of a big financial crisis,said Douglas Elliott, a former investment banker and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who supports most of the Obama plan.All we can do is protect ourselves by making those banks stronger, so there's a lower chance they'll go under.
Obama spoke at Federal Hall in the heart of Wall Street on Monday, on the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. A number of rules proposed by Obama would help make bank failures less likely. The banks would have to hold more capital on their books, limiting how much risk they can take.The banks would face stricter supervision from the Federal Reserve — a proposal that faces stiff opposition from senators, including Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Banks with assets of more than $10 billion would pay more fees to regulators to finance the stepped-up oversight.But the banks' failures still would pose a threat to financial stability,the Obama regulatory plan says.They'll say,Look, you regulated us and held us to a higher standard, and now we're failing and it's your job to clean it up,said Simon Johnson, a former economist with the International Monetary Fund, now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. It's the kind of regulation where government is on the hook when things go wrong.The administration plan does include a new way of winding down failed institutions. It will be modeled on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s practice of taking over smaller, failed banks and selling off their assets.Under the proposal, financial companies that falter usually will be taken under the FDIC's wing while their business relationships are dissolved. That will help minimize the disruption caused by disorderly failures like Lehman's.The administration's plan would protect the economy while imposing losses on shareholders and creditors of a troubled firm,said Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams. He said the proposal requires that any money spent on bailouts be recovered through fees levied on the financial industry.But there's no reason to think taxpayers won't be tapped to provide emergency financing for any bank whose failure could upend the financial system.

Obama warns Wall Street not to block tighter regs By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 14, 8:08 pm ET

NEW YORK – Lecturing Wall Street on its own turf, President Barack Obama warned financial leaders not to use the recovering economy to race back into reckless behavior that could cause a new meltdown. He declared that a bailout-weary public will not break their fall again.Obama insisted Monday that there is an urgent need for tighter financial regulation, and he cautioned his audience not to try to block it. He spoke on the first anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and a stark reminder of the financial crisis that spread into a deep recession despite huge federal bailouts of major companies.It is neither right nor responsible after you've recovered with the help of your government to shirk your obligation to the goal of wider recovery, a more stable system, and a more broadly shared prosperity,Obama said in a stern bid to boost his regulation proposals.The president's speech reflected public sentiment that taxpayers were immeasurably harmed from last year's financial collapse — and that, barring change, it could happen again. As investment giants return to profit, millions of Americans are still coping with unemployment, home foreclosures and retirement portfolios that got washed away in the storm.

For symbolic emphasis, Obama spoke from venerable Federal Hall on Wall Street.

Unfortunately, there are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment,Obama told a quiet audience of leaders from the investment sector.So I want them to hear my words,Obama said.We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis. ... Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences.Afterward, he joined former President Bill Clinton for lunch at a New York restaurant. The White House announced Obama would address the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative Sept. 22 while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.The public is still edgy about Wall Street and the economy. A year after the meltdown, seven of 10 Americans lack confidence that the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.Yet Obama's reach goes only so far; his bid for huge regulatory change is up to Congress.The president's plan has yet to gain serious traction on Capitol Hill, as Democratic leaders have been consumed by the health care debate and staff members are still wrestling with the complexities. The plan is being fought by a determined financial services lobby with a major assist from big business groups, and infighting among regulators who oversee the various portions of the sprawling financial architecture has further slowed the process.But the sluggish pace is expected to pick up in coming weeks. Democrats aim to stick to their promise of completing the bill by year's end, a timeline Obama badly wants to keep, but they face long odds.

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who once considered being Obama's commerce secretary, was among GOP lawmakers who responded to the president's message with caution.He said,We must be wary of the reality that — in an attempt to address yesterday's failures — Congress will put in place regulatory schemes which will fundamentally undermine risk taking.Anticipating such criticism, Obama shot back against those pushing for less regulation.Do you really believe that the absence of sound regulation one year ago was good for the financial system? he said.Do you believe the resulting decline in markets and wealth and unemployment, the wrenching hardship that families are going through all across the country, was somehow good for our economy? He also told Wall Street that it had no need to wait for new laws to begin helping consumers with straight talk in the meantime.

Much of Obama's speech amounted to a recap of his proposals, first outlined in June.

He has sought tougher capital requirements for banks, arguing that banks' buying of exotic financial products without keeping enough cash in reserve was a key cause of the crisis. He wants more openness for the markets in which banks trade the most complex products.Obama's plan also would give the Federal Reserve new oversight powers and impose conditions designed to discourage companies from getting too big. And he proposes a consumer protection agency to make rules for financial products, so people know what they're buying.The House Financial Services Committee, led by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who supports much of Obama's plan, is expected in October to take up the first piece of the legislation, one that would establish an agency focused on consumer protections. The panel has already passed legislation intended to curb excessive compensation at financial institutions.Obama's plan could face significant revisions in the Senate, where Democrats have joined Republicans in questioning whether more power should be given to the Federal Reserve.Industry is working particularly hard to kill or at least weaken the consumer protection agency idea, which it says will lead to increased costs for consumers, and various corporate interests are fighting the new rules for complex financial transactions, arguing they could stifle legitimate commerce.

Meanwhile, Obama made sure to dole out credit Monday — to his own administration. He introduced his economic team and said its outstanding leadership of a financial stability plan helped the system emerge from crisis.Obama warned against complacency but said: We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break.Associated Press writers Anne Flaherty and Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed to this story from Washington.

Indonesia's Aceh to allow stoning for adulterers By FAKHRURRADZIE GADE, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 14,09

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – Lawmakers in a devoutly Muslim Indonesian province voted unanimously that adulterers can be sentenced to death by stoning, just months after voters overwhelmingly chose to throw conservative Islamic parties out of power.With only weeks to go before a new government led by a moderate party takes over in Aceh province, hard-liners still in control of the regional parliament pushed through legislation Monday to impose steep punishments for adultery and homosexuality.The chairman of the 69-seat house asked if the bill could be passed into law and members answered in unison: Yes, it can.Some members of the moderate Democrat Party, which will lead the incoming government, voiced reservations, but none of them voted against the bill.Human rights groups said the law violates international treaties signed by Indonesia. The province's deputy governor also opposed the legislation, saying it needed more careful consideration because it imposes a new form of capital punishment.The Aceh Party is also believed to have a less strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, and some activists expressed hope that once in power, they would amend or tone down the law. Others were considering contesting the bill in court in the capital, Jakarta.Aceh, where Islam first arrived in Indonesia from Saudi Arabia centuries ago, enjoys semiautonomy from the central government. A long-running Islamic insurgency in the province ended in 2005 in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 130,000 there.A version of Shariah that was introduced in Aceh in 2001 already bans gambling and drinking alcohol, and makes it compulsory for women to wear headscarves. Dozens of public canings have been carried out by the local Shariah police against violators of that law.

The majority of Indonesia's nearly 200 million Muslims practice a moderate form of the faith, and surveys suggest they do not support such hardline interpretations of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.Stoning is legally sanctioned in varying forms in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and parts of Nigeria. Illegal stonings have also been reported in recent years in Iraq and Somalia. But its use is a point of contention among Islamic scholars.The new Indonesian law also imposes tough sentences and fines, to be paid in kilograms of gold, for rape and pedophilia, but the most hotly disputed article was on adultery and states that offenders can be punished by a minimum of 100 lashings and a maximum of stoning to death.It also imposes severe prison terms for other behavior considered morally unacceptable, including homosexuality, which will be punishable by public lashings and more than eight years in prison.The bill violates national and international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities and women, said a gay rights activist in Aceh who requested anonymity because he feared for his safety.It's discriminatory, and it's saddening, but we are quite sure members of civil society who are concerned with human rights will not sit by silently,the activist said, adding that he hopes the new moderate leadership in the province will overturn the law after taking power next month.Aceh Vice Governor Muhamad Nazar said that even though his office opposed the clause on stoning to death it has no legal power to block it.Whatever law is passed we have to enforce it,he said.Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus and Anthony Deutsch contributed to this article from Jakarta.

Clash Over Islamization at DC Muslim Prayer Rally
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz SEPT 15,09

(IsraelNN.com) A new organization dedicated to fighting what it sees as an encroaching Islamic takeover of the U.S. is set to launch later this month with a gathering in Washington, D.C. - on the same day as a massive Muslim prayer rally in the U.S. capital. The Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group has declared its mission to be educating Americans about the threat that Islamic doctrine and those who support it present to our freedoms, and the future of our democracy and country. The organizers call themselves scholar warriors/ideological warriors in the cause of American freedom and Constitutional government,as well as in the defense of... our society of liberty, knowledge, and human decency.SIOA believes that political Islam is opposed to American values of freedom, tolerance, or human rights.They seek to raise the issue of what they call brutal, misogynist Islamic law and jihad in America, because tolerance for ideologies that are opposed to our principles of individual freedoms and our Constitution is indefensible,the group declares in its online manifesto. A recently-released film, The Third Jihad, warns that radical Islam is working on a non-violent, cultural takeover of the United States.We are now in a new phase of a 1,400-year-old jihad against the kafirs (all non-Muslims everywhere); we are not prepared to meet the threat,SIOA says.[I]gnorance about Islam, its doctrine and purposes is a moral and ethical failure whose consequences can be nothing short of national extinction.The official launch of the SIOA is slated for September 25, 2009, at an as-yet unknown venue in the U.S. capital. The timing and location appears to be far from coincidental.

A massive Muslim prayer gathering is planned for for the same day in front of the Capitol building. Spearheaded by the Elizabeth, New Jersey Dar-ul-Islam Mosque, organizers are expecting 50,000 people to attend the first-of-its-kind national event. The gathering will be limited to prayer, according to Hassen Abdullah, president of Dar-ul-Islam.SIOA sees the event as a big-budget... soft jihad,fought through marketing and cultural/ideological warfare.D.L. Adams of SIOA wrote of the planned Muslim prayer gathering,It is impossible to see this event as anything but what it is, taqiyya (sacred deception), jihad (endless universal war against the unbelievers), and dawa (conversion).The SIOA website calls for 'every protest of this takiya-jihad-dawa event... [to] include some component of donkey, dog, and women.The SIOA's own event is planned to conclude with a saunter around the streets of Washington DC, on the day of the Muslim prayer rally, in order to engage in conversations with our fellow citizens who might happen to be there on the same day on matters of moment.However, more confrontationally, the SIOA website calls for every protest of this takiya-jihad-dawa event... [to] include some component of donkey, dog, and women.The reason for this unusual suggestion is made clear on the SIOA site as well: Muslim doctrine, according to the SIOA, says that Islamic prayer is nullified if a dog, a woman, or a donkey are present.At the same time, the SIOA promotional literature for the organizational launch emphasizes,We are an entirely non-violent organization. Our sauntering is planned to be more a polite conversational engagement rather than a demonstration.Organizers look forward to a pleasant several hours chatting with our fellow Americans in the Capitol on the issue at hand.Speakers at the SIOA launch are slated to include expatriate Egyptian activist Nonie Darwish, Islam scholar and author Robert Spencer, journalist Pamela Geller, and Christine Brim, Senior Vice President for Policy and Program Management at the Center for Security Policy.